Empower, empower, empower! It sounds obvious but I’ve found by managing women that you have to remind them that they are in charge. Don’t doubt yourself or second guess your decisions. Trust your gut. We almost always have the answer we’re looking for but don’t trust ourselves to execute. You wouldn’t be in leadership if someone didn’t trust your judgement.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Rose Previte, 2018 RAMMY nominee for Restaurateur of the Year. Rose is co-owner of DC’s award-winning restaurants Compass Rose and Maydan, comes from a food loving Sicilian-Lebanese family. Growing up, Rose spent years helping to run her mother’s catering business and later her restaurant. She later spent over a decade working in bars and restaurants, including Mike Schuster’s Pour House for over six years, while getting a master’s degree in Public Policy from George Mason University. Rose married David Greene, NPR journalist, and joined him when he was posted in Russia. In almost three years’ time the couple traveled to 30 countries, absorbing their street and market foods, and the energy of diverse cultures. These travels reinforced her strong commitment to community, and to offering people the chance to taste delicious foods and discover the meaning behind them, which inspired the opening of Compass Rose in 2014. Since Compass Rose’s opening, the 2017 RAMMY award-winner for best casual restaurant has been named on every best restaurant list in D.C. and has received national recognition from esteemed news outlets including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Food & Wine, Bon Appetit, etc. In November 2017, Rose opened her second award-winning restaurant, Maydan, which was conceived and designed over a three-week journey last summer through Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey, Georgia and Lebanon to discover those countries’ foodways. Since its opening just nine months ago, the restaurant, named a James Beard Semifinalist, has received critical acclaim from local, regional, and national press outlets, including being named a №2 Best New Restaurant in America” by Bon Appetit, a “Top 10 Best New Restaurant” by Food & Wine, a “Best New Restaurant in America” by G.Q Magazine, one of Eater’s “18 Best New Restaurants in America”, the 2018 “Best Restaurant Design” winner by Eater DC, and more.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
I grew up in food loving-home helping my mother with her catering business. I knew I always wanted hospitality to be a permanent part of my life but wasn’t quite sure how to make it that way. I always worked in bars or restaurants after leaving home but felt like I didn’t want to do that forever. So instead went to graduate school and worked for non-profits and then got a local government job. Until my husband’s job lead us to live in Moscow, Russia for three years. I traveled the world with my husband during that time and I got a lot of time to contemplate my life. I wasn’t working then and knew I had to make a career change when we moved home. So on the Trans-Siberian Express somewhere in Siberia (no exaggeration) I decided that when I got back to the States I would start doing everything in my power to figure out how to open a restaurant.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
There really are so, so many. But an early experience that I’ll never forget was my fight to get a liquor license at my first restaurant, Compass Rose. The restaurant is in an old row house in a row of mixed-use buildings. But we were the first restaurant to move in. Because I was a female owner and on the young side when I started opening the business, a group of neighbors fought with the City to try and keep me from getting a very legal liquor license for the business. The fight cost us months of delays on construction, unexpected legal fees and hours of meetings with unreasonable people. It was one of the biggest learning experiences of my life and one of the hardest things I had ever gone through. We had a super tight budget and I thought all the extra expenses could cost us so much of our funding that we would have to back out of the project. I worried that if we didn’t get the license it wouldn’t matter anyway because there was no point to opening. In the end, the conflict management skills I learned as well as the fight to persevere were expensive but valuable lessons learned.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
Of course I think a lot of things make us stand out. Our commitment to a crazy level of service based on a true love for hospitality. How we are dedicated to the details or how we do things just a little differently than anyone else does. But one of the nicest compliments we get is that we have a great “vibe”. When people come in to either one of my restaurants they always comment on this. It’s a mix of good energy, lighting, design and music. It’s something that only comes for a truly genuine core created by people who really care and love what they are doing. That makes us stand out.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
I have a couple things in the works. Possibly opening other locations around the country. I think we have a good message that should be spread to other places. I have a a little dream of starting a textile-based company that creates linens for restaurants. I think there is a need in this area and I think I can find a really cool way of making it affordable but still empowers female entrepreneurs. I know that’s vague but details to follow!
What advice would you give to other female leaders to help their team to thrive?
Empower, empower, empower! It sounds obvious but I’ve found by managing women that you have to remind them that they are in charge. Don’t doubt yourself or second guess your decisions. Trust your gut. We almost always have the answer we’re looking for but don’t trust ourselves to execute. You wouldn’t be in leadership if someone didn’t trust your judgement.
What advice would you give to other female leaders about the best way to manage a large team?
Act with a ton of confidence. It’s like I teach my servers on the floor, if you speak with confidence most people are going to listen. Even if it’s the first time you’re talking about a new wine or new dish, just say what you know to be true with confidence and people are more likely to listen. When you doubt yourself, they will doubt you too. We already have to overcome that people don’t naturally believe what we have to say because we are female, so talk the part! Confidence doesn’t have to be arrogance, there is a fine line….
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
My business partner took a chance on me when we opened Compass Rose. He already had businesses but hadn’t done a full restaurant. I used to work for him at a bar on Capitol Hill. He trusted that even though I had never done this before, that I would work hard and figure it out. He also trusted that I already knew a good bit about food, beverage and service even though I hadn’t proven that I could sell as much as would need to be sold to open Compass Rose. He trusted me and taught me parts of the business I didn’t know. He’s never made me feel less than for being a woman and I really appreciate that. He supports me trying out a ton of crazy ideas because he believes I can do what I say I can do.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
I came from the non-profit sector before restaurants so I sort of had to remember I was now in the business of MAKING money. Now, making money pays the paychecks of a lot of employees so that is good and important. But now at least we have a little platform to bring attention to issues that need to be talked about. We are able to host a lot of cool fundraiser where we use food to connect people to issues and cultures they might not know about otherwise. The concept behind both of my restaurants is about not being afraid to try something new, go somewhere new and most of all to not be afraid of people who are different than you. We spread that word in all of our marketing and in the stories the guests hear in the restaurants.
What are your “5 Leadership Lessons I Learned From My Experience” and why. (Please share a story or example for each.)
1. You are not weak if you ask for help. At the beginning I tried to do everything by myself and didn’t want to admit it was too much. I almost broke and that was silly when there were ways to get help, I just had to ask. No shame in that.
2. Like I mentioned, speak with confidence. I used to speak too quickly with lots of disclaimers on everything I said. I even mumbled when I wasn’t sure what I was saying was going to be received well. Now I speak clearly and with confidence and the reaction from people is entirely different. I figured out that if I didn’t believe in what I was saying, why would anyone else believe in me?
3. Do what’s in the best interest of the business. You have to do a lot of hard things daily, like fire people. I still hate it even when it is very deserved. But whenever I have to make a hard decision, I just ask myself, what’s best for these businesses and that’s your answer. Even if it feels terrible for a minute.
4. Don’t be afraid to talk about money. I waited too long to bring up some inequities in one of my partnership pay structures and it’s much harder to figure out after the fact than in the moment. It’s uncomfortable and we often don’t want to talk about money because at the end of the day, as women, we still question our worth. You are worthy so talk about it and you and your partners can usually come up with something that’s good for everyone (if you have the right partners).
5. Listen. Sometimes I talk too fast and too much and I forget to listen, really listen to what people, especially my staff, is saying. That’s a terrible habit I still work hard to break. Even if you’re crazy, rushed as an owner, take time to hear what people are saying, there is a great deal of value in that.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I would host regular dinner parties in DC at my restaurants with prominent Republicans and Democrats around my table. I would feed them and make them see each other as humans for a minute. Not enough of that is happening in Washington right now and I really think the simple act of eating together (yes, breaking bread if you will), can get people to be open and vulnerable and kind. If our politicians start doing more of this, I think we would be farther ahead than we are and change actually could start to happen.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life? Some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂
I would love to have lunch with Michelle Obama. I feel like we have a lot to talk about.
Thank you for all of these great insights!
Restaurateur Rose Previte: “A leader must empower, empower, empower” was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
