Hey everybody, Ryan Gromfin here! Author, speaker, chef restaurateur, and the founder of www.TheRestaurantBoss.com as well as www.RestaurantProfitandPerformance.com.

I want to apologize for an advance for the story I am about to tell you. In no way do I want this to come off as bragging, patting myself on the back or arrogant in any way. The intention is not to impress you but to impress upon you the importance of following your dreams and setting goals. Obviously we know it’s the beginning of a year. Everybody’s talking about setting goals!

But here’s the thing. Sometimes we avoid setting goals because of fear. But I don’t truly believe it’s fear itself. I beleive its fear of failure, fear of making mistakes, whatever it is… but really I believe it’s a belief in ourselves. It’s a belief in others, it’s a belief that if we go out and chase our dreams and then don’t achieve them, that others are going to make fun of us or judge us. So it’s the belief in ourselves that I think sometimes hold us holds us back.

Over the years I have spent a lot of time working on this with different coaches and mentors. I read a lot of books, I attend a lot of seminars, and I believe in my belief?

It doesn’t matter if I fail and I don’t care what anyone else thinks. I actually intentionally try to put myself out there into positions where people will judge me, and people will disagree with me. Because it’s in those moments of conflict, it’s when people say you’re crazy you shouldn’t be doing that…that I know I’m getting close to achieving something great. I know I’m pushing an envelope. Because if we do what everyone else does we’re going to have the same results everybody else has.

So anyways very quickly I just want to share this with you because it was incredibly exciting for me and I think it will help you.

When I set out on this journey consulting years and years and years ago. I never dreamed that one day a restaurant that I frequented quite often myself growing up, would ever call me to work with them. And it happened a couple of months ago I got an email from someone who invested in one of my programs.

We’ve ended up working together and I just got back from spending two days with their entire team in Los Angeles going through their restaurants and putting together a growth plan.

I just couldn’t help but be humbled and honored that a restaurant that I ate at as a child. Somewhere that I love, somewhere that I frequented was now asking me for my help. And we had such an amazing strategy session. We put together so many great strategies for massive growth in 2017.

Which brings me back to you…what are your goals for 2017. But what are you uncomfortable with what are you pushing yourself toward? A lot of times people ask me questions like why is a 10 or 12 unit chain looking for help? They’re already successful.

But they’re thinking 200 units. Every conversation we had was will that strategy apply and help us get to 200 units?

But maybe you’re not there. Maybe you don’t have a unit yet and you’re looking for your first. Maybe you have your first, you’re looking to grow your sales. Maybe you have one or two and you’re looking to get to 10. Whatever it is, are your goals making you a little bit uncomfortable?

It’s putting yourself out there, making you a little bit uncomfortable because if it is that means you’re on your way to something great.

Anyways I hope that helps you a little bit. I hope it makes you feel more comfortable with being uncomfortable. I hope you take away from this that maybe it’s not fear that’s holding you back. Fear in the common sense of the word ‘fear’. Maybe it’s just your belief that you can do it that’s holding you back. Maybe it’s just your belief that it doesn’t really matter what other people think and it doesn’t really matter if you struggle. It’s just your belief in yourself and your belief that what you’re doing is right.

So again, I said this a couple times with, 1. What are your goals in 2017? What are you stretching for? What are the things that make you uncomfortable to say out loud? What are the things that when you tell others about it they say “oh that’s crazy, that’s never going to work…” because that’s exactly what you should be working on.

I want to give you guys a gift here today. If you haven’t already, below this video will be a button to download The 2017 Profit Guide. I put out a new guide every year, sometimes in the past these are more systems or more operations oriented. This year’s is a little bit more focused on your profits and so below this video is a button to download that. I hope that you have a chance to read through it, and enjoy it, and hold it close to you are for 2017.

Below the video is a button to download your 2017 Restaurant Profit Guide.

I hope you had a great holiday and really enjoyed the festivities and look back at your year as a success. And I hope that you have an absolutely incredible New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day and just New Year in general.

Everybody it’s been an absolute pleasure bringing you these videos all year long. I look forward to 2017, and I look forward to working in 2017 with you, for you and holding your hand side by side.

Happy new year everybody!