Behind the Scenes

Brian Schultz, founder of Studio Movie Grill and an innovator of the dine-in movie concept, describes how the company grew from a one-screen idea in 1993 to 14 million guests and 7,000 employees, then dropped from a $450 million business to zero in a day when COVID shut theaters down. He shares his “Win Five” stakeholder model (team, guests, community, vendors, investors), examples of aligning incentives through community events, and his mindset of treating setbacks as continuous “plan, do, check, adjust” learning rather than failure, including limiting “pity parties” to five minutes. Schultz discusses post-COVID habit changes, repositioning theaters as community gathering spaces with higher-quality experiences and diverse uses, and using AI (EasyBotChat now Onkey) to quickly support frontline employees without replacing them.

00:00 Company To Zero

00:54 Award And Leadership

02:13 Win Five Framework

03:48 Community Win Wins

06:54 Fail Faster Mindset

09:42 Covid Shutdown Fallout

11:44 Reinventing The Theater

13:22 AI For Frontline Teams

17:46 Building 100 Year Legacy

19:54 Closing Thoughts 

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Description: In this Behind the Scenes episode, host visits Colossal Biosciences with co-founder and CEO Ben Lamm, a serial entrepreneur who has founded and sold five companies, to see how Colossal is building a de-extinction and species preservation pipeline. Lamm explains how the company develops synthetic biology technologies (open-sourced for conservation) while pursuing industrial and medical applications and supporting conservation through the $100M Colossal Foundation. He describes early investor skepticism, the challenge of aligning 260+ scientists across disciplines, and the milestone of producing dire wolf pups—Romulus, Remus, and Khaleesi—using an end-to-end platform that started with a 73,000-year-old skull. Colossal has announced six targets: woolly mammoth, Tasmanian tiger, dodo, moa, dire wolf, and blue buck. Lamm says the biggest hurdle for scaling de-extinction is artificial womb technology and stresses animal welfare, ending with a message of hope and innovation amid a biodiversity crisis.

00:00 De-Extinction Breakthrough

00:49 Lab Tour and Dire Wolves

03:03 Which Species Come Back

03:52 What Colossal Actually Does

06:09 Why Ben Bet on It

09:05 Winning Over Investors

10:58 Building the Dream Team

14:25 Dire Wolf Birth Story

20:19 Mammoth Roadblocks

22:41 Hope and Closing Thoughts

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In this episode of Behind the Scenes, filmed in Dallas, Mark Bailey (President and CEO of The Original Pancake House DFW) and his longtime partner Jonathan Seyoum share how they built a seven-location operation with about 240 employees by focusing on service, trust, and long-term quality. They discuss why they chose and stayed in the restaurant industry, what makes their 30-year partnership work (shared values, communication, mutual care, and support even when they disagree), and how they manage scale through clear structure, empowered decision-making, and consistent, structured communication. Mark explains why their “made from scratch” approach matters, including a multi-day sour-starter batter process with no shortcuts, to protect consistency across locations. They also outline lessons for building a company that lasts: stay true to founding principles, innovate to remain relevant, and lean on core values during hard times, including cost pressures.

00:00 Meet Mark and Jonathan

00:47 Why Restaurants

02:04 Jonathan’s Origin Story

04:22 Mark’s Path to Ownership

07:41 Trusting a Business Partner

09:04 Making Partnership Work

12:27 Running Seven Locations

17:00 Communication at Scale

19:14 Five Day Pancake Process

21:15 No Shortcuts Long Game

23:34 Proud Place to Work

26:50 Great Place to Work Proof

31:17 Building a 100 Year Company

38:00 Closing Thanks and Takeaways 

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In this episode of Behind the Scenes, Dan T. Cathy—former CEO of Chick-fil-A and founder of Trilith—shares how his family built Chick-fil-A from the tiny Dwarf House into the third-largest U.S. restaurant company while staying purpose-driven, including closing every Sunday worldwide. He explains how trust is earned through genuine hospitality, rigorous standards, and consistent systems, plus a long-term purpose statement focused on stewardship and positive influence. Cathy describes learning from other organizations, evolving with external change, and making values-based decisions in airports, stadiums, and even airline service. He also details how an unexpected visit to Pinewood Studios led to building Trilith Studios and a walkable town designed to enrich story makers. The conversation covers leadership, succession to his son Andrew, retention, excellence, and solving new problems by staying fast, focused, flexible, friendly, and fun.

00:00 Meet Dan T. Cathy and Trillith

01:43 Cathy Family Origins

03:39 From Dwarf House to Growth

05:17 Trust and Hospitality Culture

06:59 Building Systems and Standards

11:36 Purpose and Sunday Closure

14:12 Values Tested in New Venues

17:07 Retention and Pursuing Excellence

19:15 Trilith Purpose and Inspiration

20:27 Purpose Beyond Profit

21:18 Olympics to Pinewood Deal

23:06 Building Trillith Ecosystem

25:01 Walkable Town Design

27:00 Sprinting to Finish Well

28:30 Passing Knowledge to Next Gen

30:49 Kindness Faith and Leadership

34:31 Health Discipline and Guardrails

36:09 Succession to Next CEO

37:29 100 Year Company Mindset

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On Behind the Scenes with Michelle Bernier, Chris Voss — former FBI lead hostage negotiator and bestselling author of Never Split the Difference — breaks down the method behind a 24-year career negotiating with bank robbers and kidnappers. He explains "tactical empathy" through the idea that there are "three sides to every story: your side, my side, and the truth," and shares the single phrase — "seems like you got a reason for saying that" — he says can end up to half of all arguments. Voss admits his approach was "never widely accepted," even inside the FBI, and uses the war in Ukraine to explain why arguing rarely changes anyone's mind. He also unpacks his book's most misunderstood idea, arguing that "splitting the difference" is a recipe for mediocrity, and explains why he believes autonomy — not survival — is what people actually want most in any negotiation.

01:37 Why Chris Joined FBI

03:55 First Hostage Case

04:57 Tactical Empathy Basics

07:52 Getting People to Open Up

09:54 When People Escalate

11:07 Kidnapping in Venezuela

14:50 Learning From Mistakes

16:02 Influencers and Black Swans

17:57 Crisis Skills in Business

20:48 Never Split the Difference

23:05 Building a 100 Year Company

26:12 Where to Learn More

26:55 Practice and Closing

About the Guest:

Chris Voss is a former FBI lead kidnapping negotiator, betselling author of Never Split The Difference, and founder and CEO of The Black Swan Group; a negotiation, training, coaching, and consulting organization that teaches people how to achieve better outcomes in high-stakes conversations.

Recognized globally as a leading authority on negotiation, Chris developed his approach through decades of experience in crisis negotiation. Today, he and The Black Swan Group apply those principles to business, sales, leadership, difficult conversations, and high-stakes communication through The Black Swan Method® and Tactical Empathy®.

Never Split The Difference has introduced millions of readers around the world to Chris's negotiation methodology. Through The Black Swan Group, Chris and his team help people go beyond understanding the concepts in the book and develop negotiation as a practical, repeatable performance skill through training, coaching, practice, and live experiences.

The Black Swan Group offers in-person negotiation training, live and self-paced online negotiation training, coaching, keynote speaking, and advanced negotiation experiences for business owners, leaders, sales professionals, and other professionals who want to become more effective dealmakers.

Learn from Chris Voss and The Black Swan Group:

Negotiation training and resources: https://www.blackswanltd.com/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=behindthescenespodcast

In-person and live training: https://www.blackswanltd.com/live-events?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=behindthescenespodcast

Online negotiation training: https://www.blackswanltd.com/online-negotiation-classes?utm_source=youtube&utm=social&utm_campaign=behindthescenespodcast

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In this episode of Behind the Scenes, host Michelle Bernier interviews Hugh Forrest, former co-president and chief programming officer of South by Southwest, who joined in 1989 as its first paid employee and helped grow the festival from a regional music event into a multi-track experience spanning film, technology, and culture. Forrest explains that building community has “no secret,” requiring patience, persistence, attention to details, long-term incremental improvement, and learning from mistakes. He shares event-leadership principles like staying calm under pressure (“don’t let the audience see you sweat”), delegating to trusted teams and volunteers, and being transparent with a vocal community when errors happen. He warns that size and scale can be the enemy of community and emphasizes quality over numbers, human creativity, and in-person connection—especially in an AI-driven world. After leaving SXSW in April, he launched Gather and Grow Experiences to consult organizations on building experiences and avoiding common mistakes.

00:00 Meet Hugh Forrest

00:59 Show Intro and Stakes

02:35 Early Days at SXSW

05:10 Community Over Organizers

06:14 Scaling Staff and Volunteers

09:18 No Secret Sauce

11:58 Handling Crises Calmly

16:40 Bottom Up Programming

18:03 Leadership and Principles

23:29 What Must Never Change

26:40 Building Community From Zero

29:35 Next Chapter Gather and Grow

32:49 How to Reach Hugh

34:04 Final Takeaways and Outro

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On Behind the Scenes with Michelle Bernier, Kelsey Grammer reflects on how “what looks easy is easy,” but it takes years to get there, and shares the mindset that sustained his decades-long career. He describes an early break—saying “yes” to an audition that led to his first theater job for $65 a week—and emphasizes tenacity, making your own luck through hard work, and “never quitting.” Grammer discusses facing criticism and “judgment without knowledge,” learning to “keep them guessing” to avoid being typecast, and his belief that God is a partner in using the gifts you’re given. He also talks about entrepreneurship, including successes and major failures like a small windmill investment and a clothing company, and explains why he keeps getting back up. Grammer outlines his “American Revelation” project, aimed at restoring foundational American history and ideals in education.00:00 Success Looks Easy00:59 Meet Kelsey Grammer02:00 Faith Luck and Purpose02:51 Gregory Peck’s Influence04:38 Gifts and Tenacity06:19 First Break Old Globe07:41 Never Quit Mindset08:46 Handling Criticism10:49 God and True Notes11:17 Grief and Healing13:00 Keep Them Guessing13:18 Stay Unpredictable13:56 Beer With a Purpose15:22 Dreams Need Action15:53 Music Roots to Acting17:03 Risking It All17:53 Failure and Resilience18:46 Why America Works21:14 American Revelation Project23:54 Hollywood Pushback24:46 Build Something Lasting

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Today, the Chief of Sales & Marketing at a 50-year-old family business is taking you inside the unglamorous machinery that actually keeps a company alive for half a century.

Erika Mandel spent 20 years actively avoiding the family business — building a corporate career at places like News Corporation and KPMG, and running startups of her own — because she grew up thinking the blinds business was boring. Then her father asked her to come in and consult. She never left.

Erika now runs Sales & Marketing at Creative Blinds, the Houston window-treatment company her father founded in 1976. But what makes this conversation so powerful is not just the story of coming home. It's Erika's argument that everything people assume about "legacy" businesses — that they run on nostalgia, tradition, and cozy sentimentality — is exactly backwards. The businesses that survive fifty years survive because underneath the legacy surface, they quietly become operational machines: systems, dashboards, SOPs, and a culture built to outlast any one person, including her.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why she saw the family business as boring for 20 years — and what changed her mind
• How "unsexy" tools like systems, dashboards, and SOPs are what actually let a company scale
• Why she believes 50-year-old businesses aren't cozy legacies — they're operational machines
• How Creative Blinds uses automation and AI on the back end without losing the human, high-touch experience up front
• Why 75% of their clients are repeats or referrals — and what that says about trust
• How she pivoted the entire business to virtual consults, sample drop-offs, and scheduled showroom visits during COVID — without laying off a single employee
• What it actually takes to manage change inside a family business
• The four core values that hold the company together: solution the problem, teach to learn, master the details, and "give a shit"
• Why the boring, operational parts of a business are often the most important ones

00:00 A Blind Store Legacy
00:57 Meet the Podcast Host
01:47 Erica Joins the Family Business
03:12 Systems That Scale
04:33 The Reality of Legacy
06:01 People First Principles
08:04 AI Without Losing Touch
09:38 Trust and Repeat Clients
10:57 COVID Pivot Playbook
13:45 Managing Change in Family
15:09 Future Proof Core Values
18:33 Where to Find Creative Blinds

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