You're optimistic and you think you're two to three months out and then you wake up and you're 12 months out and you're like holy sh**

How did this happen?

And it is an emotional roller coaster. There's days where it's super bleak and dark and you're like there's no way possible

And then there's days like this last weekend where

Literally the world came back to the movies and of the people who returned

75% of them were returning for the first time and

And so there is pent up demand and people do want to come back and they're feeling safer because there are vaccines and

That feels like we have a plan as a nation of how we're gonna move forward

First of all, let's make sure everyone understands bankruptcy we're in chapter 11, which is just restructuring

And while it's not a tool that we wanted to use it actually is a very helpful tool

For a company when you've had something like this happen

There's no shame when you have acted

With culture and values and ethics and find yourself in a tough situation

If anything we all need to talk more about it so that we all can learn and grow together

Versus living in shame or fear. There's no shame in what we've been through

That's Shelley Taylor CEO of Alamo Drafthouse

The hip culture forward movie theater operation got hammered by the pandemic as Shelley explained in an earlier appearance on the podcast

Then in March Alamo filed for bankruptcy protection

I'm Bob Safian former editor of fast company founder of the flux group and host of Masters of Scale rapid response

I wanted to talk to Shelley again because bankruptcy is such a fraught strategic decision

While chapter 11 can be an effective tool that many enterprises turn to it also carries a stigma

Shelley explains how and why Alamo made the choice it did the lesson she's learned about the process

...