Episode 97 – How To Scale Your Restaurant Without Sacrificing Your Life with Chef James Avery

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Episode 96 – The Fair Wage War with Lisa and Patrick Balcom

July 28, 2022PodcastDonald Burns, Embrace the Suck, Leadership, marketing, masterminds, Outstanding Mindset, podcast, profits, restaurant business, Restaurant Coach, restaurant masterminds, Restaurant Success Summit, restaurants, The Restaurant Coach, Your Restaurant Culture Sucks, Your Restaurant Still Sucks, Your Restaurant Suckstherestaurantcoachpodcast

Welcome to The Restaurant Coach Podcast. It is the cure for the common restaurant. Let me ask you a question…do you feel that tension in the air?

Maybe it’s just me or are we about to see a big economy shift? Some call it a recession some call it a downturn. Whatever you call it, I just want to remind you that it’s going to be okay. Now is the time you will want to get your plan together and tighten up a few things like your menu, marketing, and team.

I invite you to join me every Friday LIVE inside my private Facebook group called The Restaurant Coach Nation where I hold a weekly training to give you the tools you need to make more while working less IN your restaurant. Just follow the link in the show notes to join. It’s FREE to become a member and this is my way of helping 1 million independent restaurants break free from being average.

Speaking of average…did you know that the average restaurant has a turnover rate of around 73%. That’s not good when you consider that Cornell University states that the average cost of turnover is around $5,864.00 per employee! Turnover can bleed a restaurant out quietly and they rarely see it happening. So what are restaurants doing to fight back? Some are getting innovative and doing what’s know as a fare wage fee! This is a service fee added to the check that allows the restaurant to pay higher than normal wages. Some guests like the idea and of course some are against it. Today’s guests are very familiar with this debate so I invited them on the show to discuss and explain why this might be a good idea for some restaurants. Lisa and Patrick Balcom are the Chef/Owners of a restaurant in Colorado called Farow. Let’s jump into the conversation…

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Episode 95 – How To Pick Better Team Players

July 8, 2022PodcastDonald Burns, Embrace the Suck, Leadership, marketing, masterminds, Outstanding Mindset, podcast, profits, restaurant business, Restaurant Coach, restaurant masterminds, Restaurant Success Summit, restaurants, The Restaurant Coach, Your Restaurant Culture Sucks, Your Restaurant Still Sucks, Your Restaurant Suckstherestaurantcoachpodcast

Welcome to The Restaurant Coach Podcast. It is the cure for the common restaurant! Is it just me or does the world feel like we’re on some giant roller coaster? The economy is up and down. Gas prices up and now coming back down a little. Supply chain is a wreck and the quest to find great people can be as elusive as capturing Bigfoot! How about a way to ensure you hired people that were more team players? Honestly this would reduce turnover, reduce the drama in your restaurant and eventually improve your guest satisfaction and that could increase your profitability. If it sounds too good to be true it’s not. How you allow to be on your team is more important than you think and it’s time you start taking hiring seriously! Today I am going to share with you a training session I did with the members of my private Facebook group called The Restaurant Coach Nation. Every Friday (travel and holidays permitting) I go LIVE Inside to give TRC Nation members Training that can get them closer to having the restaurant and life they desire. If your not a member yet, then when would NOW be a good time to join. Just follow the link in the show notes to join us. Now, if you are not a member currently it will ask your three questions to make sure you are in the restaurant industry and then your in. Let’s jump into the LIVE session inside Facebook…

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Episode 94 – How To Catch Food Cost Thieves

June 21, 2022PodcastBo Bryant, Bruce Irving, Donald Burns, Embrace the Suck, James Beard, Leadership, marketing, masterminds, Outstanding Mindset, podcast, profits, restaurant business, Restaurant Coach, restaurant masterminds, Restaurant Success Summit, restaurants, The Restaurant Coach, Your Restaurant Culture Sucks, Your Restaurant Still Sucks, Your Restaurant Suckstherestaurantcoachpodcast

Welcome to The Restaurant Coach Podcast it is the cure for the common restaurant. Inflation is a bitch and it’s going to get worse. In today’s episode, I am going to take you inside my elite conference that I hold every year in Scottsdale, Arizona. It’s called The Restaurant Success Summit and it is a three day mega marathon of workshops from myself and other leading industry experts all curated to get you tools that you can use immediately inside your restaurant to get results! I have restaurant owners from over 12 countries attend this annual event. The next one will be October 24th to 26th and this year I am looking at being in experts to talk about Bitcoin, NFT’s, ghost kitchens, new labor models, delivery, social media, and how to stop surviving and start thriving. Keep an eye out for the your opportunity to grab one of the 60 seats available in the next month! This episode is from The Restaurant Success Summit 2021 and the thing is these workshop is really relevant to what the economy is experiencing right now step inside and have a seat as I talk to my group on How to Catch Food Cost Thieves.

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Episode 93 – The 11 Traits of Outstanding Restaurants

April 19, 2022PodcastDonald Burns, Embrace the Suck, Leadership, marketing, masterminds, Outstanding Mindset, podcast, profits, restaurant business, Restaurant Coach, restaurant masterminds, Restaurant Success Summit, The Restaurant Coach, Your Restaurant Culture Sucks, Your Restaurant Still Sucks, Your Restaurant Suckstherestaurantcoachpodcast

Welcome to another episode of The Restaurant Coach Podcast. It is the cure for the common restaurant. These are rough times for restaurants and those that are going to thrive and just survive will need to change things. One thing is we need to rethink about how we treat our team and our who we allow to be on that team! I have coaching clients right now that have learned the hard lesson of what happens when you allow toxic people to poison your culture.

Think of a toxic person like cancer. What is the mission of cancer? To infect health cells and eventually kill the host. That’s the same purpose of toxic people inside your restaurant. They want to destroy you culture from the inside. They will infect the positive team members with drama, gossip, and start rumors to undermine your mission, core values, and vision. They only care about themselves. If you found out you had cancer, what would you do to treat it? You would attack it aggressively and without mercy. You’d even cut it out of needed. That’s the same thing you must do toxic people in your restaurant. You must remove them before they cause damage. I had a client that allowed a negative energy vampire to stay way to long. By the time they took action to remove the person from the team the toxic person had already infected other (once positive) people on their team and when they let him go…they lost half of their team in one day. Don’t wait to remove toxic people. There is no upside to having them infect the good people on your team.

On today’s podcast I wanted to invite you to a session I did this year at the largest conference in Europe for HORECA which stands for Hotel, Restaurant, and Cafes. Hospitality Innovation Planet (known as HIP) is held each year in Madrid, Spain and I have be honored to have spoken there 6 times now. In this session I was asked to talk about the 11 traits that the most successful restaurants in the US share..so without further a due have a seat in the audience at Expo HIP…

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Episode 92 – Embracing Culture and Diversity with Chef Omar Anani

April 12, 2022PodcastDonald Burns, Embrace the Suck, James Beard, Leadership, marketing, masterminds, Outstanding Mindset, podcast, profits, restaurant business, Restaurant Coach, restaurant masterminds, Restaurant Success Summit, restaurants, The Restaurant Coach, Your Restaurant Culture Sucks, Your Restaurant Still Sucks, Your Restaurant Suckstherestaurantcoachpodcast

Welcome to The Restaurant Coach Podcast. It is the cure for the common restaurant. Are you feeling the pressure to find and keep staff? You’re not alone. 80% of restaurants struggle with staffing. So, what do the other 20% do? They create a culture that amplifies the team experience over the guest experience. Now, before you say that is crazy talk…hear me out. Right now in your market there are other restaurants in operation. You all buy from the same vendors or suppliers. You all hire from the same labor pool. So why do 20% thrive and the other 80% struggle? It comes down to culture. I believe in culture SO much that my third book (Your Restaurant Culture Sucks) is focused on the exact steps you must take to create a culture that will allow you to fix the staffing issue so it doesn’t become an issue for you again. Okay, so since we’re talking about culture and change my guest today is the perfect example of both. Omar Anani is a James Beard Finalist for Best Chef in The Great Lakes 2022. He is also a member of my elite private coaching program called The Restaurant Accelerator. Yes, even celebrity chefs need a coach. I just got back from a 4 day site visit where I go to work side-by-side with him and his team at his restaurant called Saffron De Twah in Detroit. We sat down early in the morning to talk about where restaurants are now and some real great ideas to change your culture. Let’s jump into the conversation…

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Episode 88 – 6 Steps to Set Your Restaurant Up For Success This Year

January 17, 2022PodcastDonald Burns, Embrace the Suck, James Beard, Leadership, masterminds, Outstanding Mindset, podcast, profits, restaurant business, Restaurant Coach, restaurant masterminds, Restaurant Success Summit, restaurants, The Restaurant Coach, Your Restaurant Culture Sucks, Your Restaurant Still Sucks, Your Restaurant Suckstherestaurantcoachpodcast

Welcome to The Restaurant Coach Podcast, it is the cure for the common restaurant. Here we are. It’s a new Year, a new you, and this is the year you make all those changes to your restaurant that you were going to do last year. Then January 1st came around and you were excited to get it all started. You are going to finally stop playing small and conquer your market.

Yeah, I know you made those same promises at the beginning of this last year too. But this year is going to be different, right

Oh, Not so fast.

Restaurant success isn’t rocket science, it’s people science. Once you understand that (and more importantly yourself) you’ll be on your way to finally breaking free from where you are now.

Here are 6 steps you must take to set your restaurant up for massive success in any year!

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Episode 83 – The Cure For the Labor Crisis

October 17, 2021PodcastCulture, Donald Burns, Embrace the Suck, Leadership, masterminds, Outstanding Mindset, podcast, profits, Restaurant Coach, restaurant masterminds, Restaurant Success Summit, restaurants, The Restaurant Coach, Your Restaurant Culture Sucks, Your Restaurant Still Sucks, Your Restaurant Suckstherestaurantcoachpodcast

Welcome to The Restaurant Coach Podcast. It is the cure for the common restaurant. So let me ask you a question…are you having a hard time finding people to work at your restaurant? I hear from so many restaurant owners each week saying that the war for talent is on like Donkey Kong. But is it really? Do we have a war FOR talent or is this in reality a war WITH talent. When people say that “These kids today just don’t want to work” my reply is “that’s not true. They just don’t want to work for you.” I want to share with you today the same cure I teach members of my Restaurant Accelerator Coaching Program. I can say with 100% certainty that when you implement the things I am going to share with you on this episode, you won’t have a labor shortage again. And all of this started with a dream I had….

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