GROW: Nourish & Network

In partnership with

2025: The Year of the One-Card Wallet

When an entire team of financial analysts and credit card experts go to bat for the credit card they actually use, you should listen.

This card recommended by Motley Fool Money offers:

• 0% intro APR on purchases and balance transfers until nearly 2027

• Up to 5% cash back at places you actually shop

• A lucrative sign-up bonus

All for no annual fee. Don't wait to get the card Motley Fool Money (and everyone else) can't stop talking about.

Learn more --> 2025's "it" card

Issue #98 - August 19

Welcome!

Hey G-Tribe! For newcomers, welcome to our GROW Tribe - a community united by Guidance that Redefines Our Way. We believe true strength comes from lifting each other up while building something that lasts.

So I'm scrolling through Restaurant Week DC menus trying to decide if we should try something different this year, like Ethiopian at Elfegne or Italian at Fiola Mare, when a friend of mine said, “Are you going to visit those restaurants or just look at pictures?"

Fair point.

Washington DC Restaurant Week runs August 18-24, and if you're like me, you've been bookmarking spots since they announced the lineup. But here's what struck me while I was debating between the $35 lunch and $55 dinner options - how many of these meals will we remember six months from now?

Not because the food won't be amazing. DC's restaurant scene is incredible. But because most people eat alone, scrolling through their phone, treating dinner like fuel instead of a connection.

Then I remembered the best meal I had was actually my mother’s homemade mac and cheese when I was growing up. She also had fresh rolls made from scratch and collard greens seasoned perfectly. Don’t get me started on the dessert. What made the meals great was sharing them with my father, my three sisters, and my brother. I was listening to all the stories, laughing, and watching my sisters argue with each other.

Those conversations changed how I think about building relationships in business. We learned to pray, we learned to be respectful, and we learned proper communication skills. All of this happened without cell phones, tablets, and televisions.

This week, we're exploring how food becomes the foundation for the connections that actually matter. We're looking at why some of your most important business relationships might start over shared meals. We're celebrating the Black chefs and restaurateurs who understand that feeding people is about more than serving plates.

Most importantly, we're examining how breaking bread together creates the trust that turns strangers into collaborators, customers into advocates, and ideas into empires.

Let's GO!

🌱 Growth Spotlight: Eating with Intention - Food, Family, and Fellowship

You know the difference between grabbing fast food in your car and sitting down for Sunday dinner with family? It's not just the time it takes. It's the conversations that happen when you're not rushing. The stories that get shared. The connections get deeper.

That same principle applies to every aspect of building relationships, especially in business.

The Science Behind Shared Meals

Here's something that might surprise you. Researchers at Cornell found that people who eat together are more likely to cooperate, share resources, and trust each other. Not because the food is great, but because sharing a meal creates what psychologists call "behavioral mimicry."

When you eat with someone, you unconsciously start matching their pace, their energy, their openness. You're getting in sync with each other. That's why deals get made over dinner tables, not conference rooms.

Three Ways Food Creates Connection

It Slows Down the Conversation. When you're sharing a meal, you can't rush through talking points like you would in a typical business meeting. You have natural pauses when people are eating. Those quiet moments let ideas sink in. They give people time to think before responding.

It Reveals Character. How someone treats restaurant staff tells you everything about how they'll treat your team. Whether they share appetizers or order the most expensive thing on the menu reveals their approach to resources. If they put their phone away or keep checking messages, it shows you their priorities.

Food strips away pretense. You can't fake authenticity when you're deciding whether to order the ribs or keep it safe with a salad.

It Creates Shared Experience. Remember the last time you had a terrible meal with great company? You probably still laugh about it. Shared experiences, even bad ones, become the foundation for inside jokes, mutual understanding, and lasting relationships.

The best business partnerships I know started with shared meals where something unexpected happened. Maybe the restaurant messed up the order. Maybe someone spilled wine on themselves. Those moments of vulnerability create bonds that survive way longer than perfect presentations.

Making It Work in Your Life

Start thinking about meals as opportunities, not obligations. Instead of eating lunch at your desk while answering emails, invite someone you want to know better. Pick a place that encourages conversation, not one where you have to shout over music.

Ask questions that go deeper than work talk. Find out what they're passionate about outside the office. Share stories that reveal who you are when you're not in business mode.

Please pay attention to how they interact with servers, how they handle unexpected situations, and how they treat the shared experience. You're not just enjoying food - you're gathering information about character, values, and compatibility.

The goal isn't to manipulate anyone over meals. The goal is to create authentic connections in an environment that naturally encourages them.

💼 Professional Growth Gateway: Business Over Brunch - Networking with Purpose

Let's be honest about networking events. Most of them are terrible. You spend two hours in an overcrowded room, collecting business cards from people you'll never contact, having the same surface-level conversations about what you do for work.

But change the setting to a restaurant, and everything shifts.

Why Food-Based Networking Works Better

When you invite someone to share a meal, you're making a different kind of investment. You're saying this relationship is worth more than just exchanging contact information. You're creating space for real conversation.

I heard about an architect who lands 80% of her new clients through what she calls "coffee shop consultations." Instead of formal meetings in her office, she invites potential clients to meet at local cafes. They discuss their vision over lattes and pastries. By the time they finish eating, they're not just talking about square footage and budgets - they're sharing dreams about how the space will change their lives.

The Restaurant Week Strategy

Here's how you can use events like DC Restaurant Week to build meaningful professional relationships:

Plan Strategic Meals. Instead of trying to hit as many restaurants as possible, pick three spots and invite three different people you want to know better. Maybe it's a potential mentor, a peer in your industry, or someone whose career path interests you.

Choose restaurants that encourage conversation. Avoid places that are too loud, too trendy, or too expensive for comfort. You want the focus on connection, not the scene.

Ask Better Questions. Skip the "So what do you do?" opener. Try "What's the most interesting project you're working on right now?" or "What got you started in this field?"

Listen for stories, not just facts. When someone mentions a challenge they're facing, ask follow-up questions. Share your own experiences that relate to theirs. Find the common ground that makes networking feel like friendship.

Follow Up with Value After the meal, don't just send a generic "nice meeting you" email. Reference something specific from your conversation. Share an article related to a topic you discussed. Make an introduction to someone who could help with a challenge they mentioned.

The goal is to turn one meal into an ongoing relationship.

🌟 Success Spotlight: Chefs and Restaurateurs Mentoring the Next Wave

Let me tell you about a woman who's changing lives one recipe at a time.

The Chef Who Builds Communities

Carla Hall didn't just become a successful chef and TV personality. She created a mentorship pipeline that's transforming how culinary professionals think about their careers.

Through her foundation, Hall connects aspiring chefs with established professionals for what she calls "kitchen conversations." These aren't formal mentorship programs with structured curricula. They're informal relationships built around shared meals and honest talk about navigating the culinary industry.

One of her mentees started as a line cook making $12 an hour. Through Hall's guidance and connections, he now runs his own catering company that employs fifteen people and generates over $2 million annually. But the real success story isn't just the money - it's watching him mentor other young cooks the same way Hall mentored him.

What Makes Food Industry Mentorship Different

Restaurant and culinary mentorship works differently from other industries because the work is so hands-on and immediate. You can't fake skills in a kitchen. You can't hide behind presentations or meetings. Either you can cook or you can't. Either you can lead a team during dinner rush or you can't.

This creates mentorship relationships based on real-time feedback and genuine skill development.

They Share Actual Systems. Great culinary mentors don't just advise about "following your passion." They share their vendor relationships, their cost management strategies, and their hiring processes. They teach the business side that culinary schools often skip.

They Open Their Networks. The restaurant industry runs on relationships with suppliers, critics, investors, and other chefs. Great mentors share those connections strategically.

They Create Opportunities for Growth. The best culinary mentors create stages (pronounced "stahj" - working in someone else's kitchen to learn) and pop-up opportunities that let their mentees showcase skills without the risk of opening their restaurants.

Many successful chefs got their start cooking one-night dinners in established restaurants, catering small events for their mentors' clients, or running food trucks during local festivals. These low-risk opportunities let them build confidence, develop signature dishes, and create buzz before making significant investments.

🔥 Michael's Hot Take: Meals That Made Me - Why the Table Still Matters

Alright G-Tribe, time for some real talk about something that's been heavy on my heart.

You've probably seen the news about the National Guard taking over certain areas of Washington, DC. People are angry, divided, scared. Social media is full of arguments about who's right, who's wrong, and who's to blame.

But you know what keeps coming to mind? Those Sunday dinners after church that used to bring entire communities together.

When Sunday Dinner Meant Something

Remember when Sunday dinner wasn't just a meal - it was an event? Families would come home from church and spend hours around tables, sharing food and stories. Neighbors would drop by. Friends would stop by after service. Kids would play while adults talked about everything and nothing.

Those weren't perfect gatherings. People disagreed then, too. But something about the rhythm of Sunday dinner - the slow pace, the shared investment in the meal, the understanding that this time was sacred - created space for real conversation.

Here's what happened at those tables that we're missing now. People who disagreed about everything from work, politics, parenting styles, and neighborhood issues, somehow found common ground over fried chicken and mac and cheese. Not because the food changed their minds, but because it's hard to dismiss someone while you're eating their cooking and watching them worry about the same things you worry about.

Food as Bridge Builder

We're living in times when people can't even agree on basic facts, let alone solutions. Social media algorithms keep us in bubbles where we only hear opinions that confirm our existing beliefs. Traditional news sources seem more interested in generating outrage than understanding.

But food breaks through all that noise.

When you're sharing a meal with someone, you can't scroll past them like a social media post. You can't mute them or block them. You have to sit with them, look at them, listen to them as real humans with real stories.

That doesn't mean you have to agree with everything they say. But it's harder to dehumanize someone after you've watched them laugh at a joke, worry about their kids, or get excited about something they're passionate about.

The DC Lesson

Right now in DC, we've got communities that barely interact with each other despite living in the same city. It’s interesting to see people making decisions about neighborhoods they've never visited. Over the last 36 years of living in the DMV, I’ve seen politicians vote for policies that affect families, but they are never asked for input.

But I also have heard about spaces where different communities come together regularly. Community centers where people share potluck dinners. Churches that host interfaith meals. Restaurants that become gathering places for diverse groups.

These aren't kumbaya moments where everyone suddenly agrees about everything. They're spaces where people remember that the person who disagrees with them politically might also be someone who volunteers at the same food bank, worries about the same neighborhood safety issues, or shares their passion for local sports teams.

Your Turn to Start the Tradition

Here's what I'm challenging you to consider. What if you brought back Sunday dinner? Not the stress of trying to recreate some perfect family tradition, but the simple act of inviting people to share a meal without an agenda.

Pick one Sunday a month. Cook something simple - it doesn't have to be elaborate. Along with your family, invite a mix of people: neighbors you wave to but never really talk to, colleagues whose lives you're curious about, friends from different circles who've never met each other.

Set one rule: phones away during the meal. Create space for actual conversation.

You might be surprised at what happens when people slow down enough to see each other, when they share stories instead of opinions. When they discover that the person they've been debating on social media volunteers at the same community center or worries about the same local issues.

This isn't about avoiding difficult conversations or pretending problems don't exist. It's about creating the foundation of a relationship that makes more challenging conversations possible later.

The Ripple Effect

Here's what happens when you start hosting regular Sunday dinners. Other people start doing it too. Your friends invite their friends. Neighbors start talking to each other. Communities that have been divided by invisible lines start connecting over visible plates.

Those connections don't solve everything overnight. But they create the relationships that survive disagreements. They build the trust that makes collaboration possible. They remind us that we're all just people trying to figure out how to live good lives and take care of our families.

In a city like DC, where policy decisions affect millions of lives, those relationships matter. What if the legislator who's had dinner in your neighborhood understands your community differently? What if you actually got to know your neighbors?

The Bottom Line

We can't control the headlines or the political climate. But we can control who we invite to our tables.

Sunday dinner won't fix systemic problems or eliminate real conflicts. But it creates the space where we remember that the person who disagrees with us politically might also be someone who loves their kids, worries about their community, and wants to build something better.

Start small. Start simple. Start on Sunday.

The table is where change begins - not in the arguments, but in the understanding that happens when we break bread together.

G-Tribe Eats & Connections Reality Check Poll

Alright, let's get real about your hosting game. If you decided to start that Sunday dinner tradition we just talked about, what would probably happen?

Upcoming Events

Speaking of bringing people together, we've got something special coming up that connects perfectly with this week's theme about community and shared experiences.

Echoes of Freedom Tour - September 20th

A Few Good Mentors (AFGM) is hosting another Echoes of Freedom Tour on Friday, September 20th, and we want the G-Tribe there!

Whether you're an educator looking for fresh ways to bring history to life, someone who loves learning about the stories that shaped our communities, or just searching for something meaningful to do while you're in the DMV area, this is your invitation to join us.

These tours aren't your typical history lessons. We explore the untold stories, the connections between past and present, and the echoes of freedom that still resonate in our communities today. It's education, inspiration, and connection all rolled into one experience.

Registration is open now. Click here to register and secure your spot.

Trust me, this is the kind of shared experience that creates the meaningful connections we've been talking about all newsletter long. Learn, connect, and be part of the G-Tribe community in person.