Monthly Archives: December 2025

Episode 179 – From Surviving to Thriving with Madison Bree

December 31, 2025PodcastDonald Burns, Embrace the Suck, Leadership, marketing, masterminds, Outstanding Mindset, podcast, profits, restaurant business, Restaurant Coach, restaurant masterminds, Restaurant Owner Bootcamp, Restaurant Success Summit, restaurants, The Restaurant Coach, TRC Method, Your Restaurant Culture Sucks, Your Restaurant Still Sucks, Your Restaurant Suckstherestaurantcoachpodcast

What happens when you refuse to let a good restaurant quietly die?

In this episode of The Restaurant Coach Podcast, Donald Burns sits down with Madison Bree, a first-time restaurant owner who took a massive leap of faith by buying an existing restaurant in Michigan that still had a name… but was slowly bleeding out.

The restaurant was Kathy’s 126.
The reputation was there.
The energy, systems, and vision were not.

Instead of trying to “save” a dying brand, Bree made the bold decision to rebuild it from the inside out. She rebranded the concept into Madison’s on Main, reopened with clarity, structure, and standards—and the results speak for themselves. The restaurant has taken off since reopening, proving that survival is optional when leadership finally steps up.

In this conversation, Bree shares:

What it’s really like buying an existing restaurant with baggage
Why rebranding was non-negotiable for growth
The mindset shifts required to move from operator to owner
How working with a coach fast-tracked her progress and eliminated years of painful trial and error
How the TRC Method helped her build structure, confidence, and momentum instead of chaos

This episode is a must-listen for:

Aspiring restaurant owners thinking about buying an existing concept
Owners stuck “keeping it alive” instead of building something that thrives
Anyone who wants proof that coaching isn’t a cost—it’s a shortcut

Bree’s story is a reminder that thriving isn’t about luck.
It’s about standards, leadership, and having the right guide in your corner.

If you’re tired of surviving and ready to build a restaurant that actually works for you—this episode will hit home.

👉 If you want to see these kinds of results in your own restaurant, book a TRC Method Strategy Call (for FREE) with me personally at www.GrowMyRestaurantNOW.com

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Episode 178 – Chef Neo vs. The Matrix (with Craig Shelton)

December 19, 2025PodcastCraig Shelton, Donald Burns, Embrace the Suck, Ingredients, James Beard, Leadership, marketing, masterminds, mental models, Outstanding Mindset, podcast, profits, restaurant business, Restaurant Coach, restaurant masterminds, Restaurant Owner Bootcamp, Restaurant Success Summit, restaurants, The Restaurant Coach, TRC Method, Your Restaurant Culture Sucks, Your Restaurant Still Sucks, Your Restaurant Suckstherestaurantcoachpodcast

What happens when a James Beard Award–winning chef looks around the modern food industry and realizes the system was never built to serve craft, soul, or truth?

This episode is a WAKE-UP CALL.

In Chef Neo vs. The Matrix, I sit down with legendary Chef Craig Shelton for a raw, unfiltered conversation about what mass production, scale-at-all-costs, and corporate commercialization have done to the heart of the culinary world.

This isn’t nostalgia.
This isn’t complaining.
This is a line in the sand.

Craig takes us deep into the moment many chefs silently experience—when the love of food collides with the pressure to standardize, cut corners, chase volume, and surrender creativity for efficiency and margins.

If you’ve ever felt like:

You’re producing food but losing your identity
Your restaurant runs, but your soul is suffocating
You didn’t become a chef to serve a system that feels hollow and transactional
The industry promised freedom… and delivered a golden cage

This episode is for you.

We talk about:

The Matrix of mass production and how chefs get trapped inside it
Why commercialization quietly erodes creativity and purpose
The difference between scaling food and scaling meaning
What it really means to take the red pill as a chef
How to reclaim craftsmanship, leadership, and freedom without selling your soul

This conversation isn’t comfortable—and it’s not supposed to be.

If you’ve felt that quiet inner voice whispering, “There has to be another way,” consider this your signal.

It’s time for chefs to stop playing a role in someone else’s system.
It’s time to wake up.
It’s time to be free of the Matrix.

🎧 Press play. Take the red pill. And decide who you’re really cooking for.

👉 If you want to see what the TRC Method can do for your and your restaurant, book a TRC Method Strategy Call (for FREE) with me personally at www.GrowMyRestaurantNOW.com

About DB

Donald Burns is a best-selling author, high-performance restaurant strategist, and founder of The TRC Method™, the framework behind some of the most profitable and disciplined independent restaurants in the industry. Known globally as The Restaurant Coach®, Donald has spent more than four decades in the trenches of hospitality—first as a chef trained by his father, a member of the elite United States Air Force Pararescue Teams, a restaurant owner, and ultimately as the strategist restaurant leaders call when burnout, chaos, and shrinking margins are no longer acceptable.

Donald is the author of multiple influential books, including the Your Restaurant Sucks trilogy, Savage Restaurant Success, and Ingredients, with his forthcoming work Restaurantology redefining how leaders think about profit, people, and performance in a low-margin industry. His work challenges the hustle mythology that keeps owners trapped and replaces it with a disciplined, systems-driven approach built on mindset, culture, and execution.

Through his coaching programs, workshops, and live events, Donald has helped thousands of independent restaurant owners reclaim profitability, leadership confidence, and personal freedom—without sacrificing their health, families, or values. His coaching ecosystem spans group masterminds, private advisory, consultant certification, and enterprise-level frameworks used by top operators and industry consultants.

Donald is a strategist trusted by driven founders, high-achievers, and restaurant leaders who are done playing small. Drawing from decades of operational experience, special operations discipline, behavioral psychology, and faith-centered leadership, he is known for delivering uncomfortable truths with clarity, conviction, and results.

Beyond business, Donald is deeply committed to leadership development, spiritual growth, and breaking generational cycles of burnout in hospitality. His mission is simple but uncompromising: to liberate independent restaurant owners from self-made prisons and help them build restaurants—and lives—that actually work.

Welcome to The Restaurant Coach Podcast—where performance meets purpose, and average is no longer an option.

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Episode 177 – From Firefighter Mode to Success Mode with Megan Coignard

December 4, 2025PodcastDonald Burns, Leadership, marketing, masterminds, Outstanding Mindset, podcast, profits, restaurant business, Restaurant Coach, restaurant masterminds, Restaurant Owner Bootcamp, Restaurant Success Summit, The Restaurant Coach, TRC Method, Your Restaurant Culture Sucks, Your Restaurant Still Sucks, Your Restaurant Suckstherestaurantcoachpodcast

In this episode of The Restaurant Coach Podcast, I sit down with Megan Coignard, owner of Nicolo’s Pizza in Lakewood, Colorado—an independent restaurant operator who was once drowning in chaos, burnout, and the never-ending cycle every owner knows too well: firefighter mode.

Two years ago, Megan picked up the phone because she had hit a wall. No more ideas. No more bandwidth. No more margin for error. Her restaurant was slipping away, and she knew doing more of the same wasn’t going to save it.

What happened next is why this episode matters.

Megan made a decision most restaurant owners never make:
She stopped trying to survive… and committed to learning how to win.

By diving into The TRC Method™, Megan rebuilt her restaurant from the inside out. She fixed her systems. She tightened her standards. She reclaimed her culture. She took control of her numbers. She transformed from an exhausted operator into a focused, confident, high-performance restaurateur.

Today, Nicolo’s isn’t just stable—it’s thriving.
Bigger sales. Better team. Stronger brand. Clear direction.
And Megan is no longer the firefighter running into burning rooms. She’s the leader building a restaurant that lasts.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• What pushed Megan to finally ask for help
• The exact TRC Method™tools she used to create fast, measurable change
• How she broke the cycle of panic, overwhelm, and reactivity
• What every independent restaurant owner must understand about culture, leadership, and standards
• Why waiting for “the right time” is the most expensive decision you can make

If you’ve ever felt like your restaurant owns you, Megan’s story will show you what’s possible when you stop fighting fires… and start building a future.

Listen now—and discover how one courageous owner turned a struggling pizzeria into a powerful, profitable brand using a proven system that works every single time it’s applied.

👉 If you want to see these kinds of results in your own restaurant, book a TRC Method Strategy Call (for FREE) with me personally at www.GrowMyRestaurantNOW.com

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