Episode 105 – Create a People Over Profits Culture with Rick Arsenault

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Episode 104 – 2022 Hot Marketing Trends with Bruce Irving

October 21, 2022PodcastBruce Irving, Donald Burns, Embrace the Suck, Leadership, marketing, masterminds, Outstanding Mindset, podcast, profits, restaurant business, Restaurant Coach, restaurant masterminds, Restaurant Success Summit, restaurants, Smart Pizza Marketing, 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. Who do you go to to bounce ideas off? Do you have a mentor? How about a group of peers that can be a sounding board? My guest today is not only a great friend he is also my go to person when I have marketing ideas that I want to get feedback on. Bruce Irving is the founder of Smart Pizza Marketing. Bruce and I met about 5 years ago when we were both a part of a mastermind group for coaches and consultants.

Now to be honest, like a lot of people I had my hesitation about joining a mastermind group. I thought it was going to be a bunch of rah rah pump people up kind of thing. And it wasn’t. It was a group of peers that gave me feedback, suggestions, and held me accountable. I only wish I had found out the true power of a mastermind earlier. My business tripled after joining that first mastermind group years ago. I now below to a couple high level masterminds that have continued to consistently grow The Restaurant Coach Brand year after year. If you want to check out my mastermind group called Restaurant Masterminds…you can head over to RestaurantMasterminds.com to see what it’s all about.

Every October we get together for three days in Scottsdale Arizona for annual masterminds conference called The Restaurant Success Summit where we have 18 workshops in just 3 days! This is our three year anniversary. Well, it would have been 4 if it wasn’t for COVID in 2020. But, we’re back and at it. Bruce is speaking at the event and this year he is bringing the heat with hot new trends like YouTube Shorts, TikTok Ads, and guerrilla marketing ideas that are low to no cost but effective like crazy. So let’s jump into the studio and the conversation…

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Episode 103 – Grow Your Profits 15% NOW!

October 14, 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. Hey, what if I could show you a way to increase your profits 12-15% over the next 90-days? If you’re listening to this podcast you’re probably yelling SHOW ME THE MONEY right now! There are a hundreds ways to make money and a thousand ways to lose it. Yes, it always seems like the odds are stacked against us. But, only if we allow those thousand little cuts to suck away our profits. Today’s session if from a training I did for my private Facebook group called The Restaurant Coach Nation. I do LIVE training each Friday (travel and holidays permitted) for The TRC Nation and my coaching members. It’s FREE to join…you just need to be currently working in the restaurant industry. Head over the the link in the show notes to become a member. Now without further ado let’s jump into how to increase your profits 15% in the next 90-days!

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Episode 102 – Fix Your Leadership NOW with Yigal Adato

October 7, 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, Yigal Adato, 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’s talk about why your restaurant is stuck. Go to the bathroom and look in the mirror…see that person looking back at you? That’s the person who needs to become a better leader. If you didn’t go look in a mirror…that would be you. Leadership is key to creating a culture of accountability. If you ever felt like a glorified babysitter at your restaurant then listen up. You are to blame and you also can fix this. My good friend Yigal Adato knows this first hand. A third generation entrepreneur, he followed in the family business and did what he was taught to do. Rule with an iron fist and be at the business from open to close. While that seemed to work for years…it didn’t go well with his new bride that didn’t like him spending the bill of his day at his business micromanaging the team. Wasn’t a business owner suppose to be the owner and not an employee? This lead Yigal down a path of self discovery and it radically changed his mindset and approach to being a leader. With his new tools in hand he changed the culture of his brand and it changed the direction of his life.

Now Yigal has a company named Unlock the Leader where he shows other business owners the same frameworks he used to get free from his business owning him. Yigal is also going to be speaking at my 3-day event in Scottsdale this October called The Restaurant Success Summit. It’s my annual immersion event for my Restaurant Masterminds coaching members and we have people from all around the globe flying in for this! Will you be there? You can be if you head over to www.RestaurantSuccessSummit.com and grab your ticket! Oh, did I mention that it also includes 90-day membership into my mastermind group that includes two weekly group calls and I am also throwing in access to my top 5 courses to get you going even faster! Let’s jump into this amazing conversation I had recently with Yigal. You might want to take notes…

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Episode 101 – Digital Strategy That Can Make Restaurants More Money with Carl Orsbourn

October 4, 2022PodcastCarl Orsbourn, Delivering The Digital Restaurant, Donald 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. If you are serious about growing your brand you first have to get serious about growing yourself. I believe that restaurants become better when the people in them become better people. That starts when the leader invests in themselves to learn, grow, and pick up new skills. Now, investing in yourself doesn’t have to be expensive. YouTube is full of videos that can help you become a better leader. LinkedIn Learning is a great way to tune up your soft skills like time management and communication. You can even join my FREE Facebook group called The TRC Nation where I go live on Fridays with a training to help you break free from your restaurant running you. And of course you have podcasts like this one that give you new ideas and ways to grow your brand. Speaking about this podcast. If you could be so kind as to subscribe, share and write a review it would mean everything to me as it helps support my mission of helping 1 million independent restaurant owners around the world make more money while working less in their business. There are a lot of radical new things happening in the restaurant industry that you need to be aware of and this October I am holding my annual 3-day conference for my restaurant Mastermind group called The Restaurant Success Summit. Now, this is not your average conference. Come on. Would I do anything average? This is a 3-day conference that includes 90-days of group coaching with me personally. So if you have ever wondered what coaching is really like…this is your opportunity to find out first hand. Head over to www.RestaurantSuccessSummit.com now to grab a ticket before this event sells out! Now, One of the 7 other speakers I have speaking at the event is best seller author of Delivering The Digital Restaurant…Carl Orsbourn. I love my conversations with Carl because I also love to learn and he is a wealth of information about how restaurants can embrace technology to make more profits and streamline their operations. Let’s jump into the conversation I had with him recently….

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Episode 100 – Gotta Sales Slump? It Might Be Your Marketing!

September 23, 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. Seriously, who wants to be average? Not you if your listening to this. You know deep down that your restaurant could be more, YOU could be more. And right now you’re feeding your brain some good stuff that is going to allow you to have it all. So what would you like more of right now? When I ask independent restaurants this question the number one response I get is more sales. If you know me my now, all business problems are people problems and sometimes that requires you to have a fresh look at what could be really causing the problem. When sales start to drop we panic. It’s natural. Here’s the thing I want to discuss with you today. What causes sales to fall in the first place and how can you save them from falling to flat-lining? On Fridays I go LIVE inside my private Facebook group called The Restaurant Coach Nation to answer questions like these. It’s free to become a member. Just answer three questions to make sure you are a restaurant owner, operator, or expert that can contribute to the group and you’re in! On today’s training I will show you the 3 biggest marketing mistakes restaurants make and what you must do now to fix them. These solutions will also fix those lagging sales too…

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Episode 99 – Want To Win The Hiring Game? DO THIS!

September 8, 2022PodcastDonald Burns, Embrace the Suck, 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. Labor issues. People quitting by text. Dogs and cats living together. It’s crazy out there. So what is a restaurant owner or operator to do? Well you could start with any of my books from The Your Restaurant Sucks Trilogy! I do want to take a moment to say thank you so very much for making all three books best sellers in the Restaurant and Food Industry category on Amazon. You can pick up the Kindle, paperback or hardcover editions of Your Restaurant Sucks, Your Restaurant Still Sucks, and my latest book Your Restaurant Culture Sucks over on Amazon. For those that like audio-books the first two books are available now at Audible and iTune. The third book with be out in audio-book format early October. Now that is taken care of let’s talk about your restaurant and why turnover has your restaurant running you….

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Episode 98 – The Key to Restaurant Success

August 18, 2022Podcastaudible, Donald Burns, Embrace the Suck, Leadership, marketing, 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

So, how are you? How is your restaurant? If I asked to describe your restaurants culture to me what would you say? Better yet, if I asked your team to describe your restaurant’s culture, what would they say? Would you be nervous if I showed up at your restaurant today and started asking the team questions about how you were as a leader or would you feel confident that they would only have great things to say. The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off. That requires you to be completely honest about where your restaurant is now as far as culture, product, and productivity. The four things that hold 80% of restaurants back is Ego, Pride, Denial and Mediocrity. I go into detail about each one of these in my new book Your Restaurant Culture Sucks. It is the third and final book in the Your Restaurant Sucks Trilogy and you can grab your copy on Amazon in either Kindle, Paperback, or hardcover editions. For those that like audio books…my first two books are available on Audible and iTunes now. Your Restaurant Culture Sucks is in production and should be available in September. On today’s episode I want to circle back to the one thing that separates the good from the great from the outstanding and that is…you guessed it: Culture. This training session is from a LIVE workshop did at Hospitality Innovation Planet in Madrid. So have a front row seat and let’s jump into the workshop…

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

August 2, 2022PodcastChef James Avery, Donald 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. I wanted to share the new that the third book in the Your Restaurant Sucks Trilogy called Your Restaurant Culture Sucks is going to be available on Amazon around mid August and the audio book version should be available on Audible at the end of August. This book has been a real challenge as I have COVID a couple of times and with the move to Arizona it’s been a whirlwind of a year! If you haven’t picked up a copy of my other books (Your Restaurant Sucks and Your Restaurant Still Sucks), this is the perfect time to grab your copies and get caught up on the series. Each book will show you another piece of the puzzle to getting the restaurant and life you want. Okay, enough self promotion. You have most likely heard that you have to work more ON your business and less IN your business. But how? Especially when you’re so busy running the restaurant, right? What if there was a better way? That way is to get better at time management. My guest today knows what it’s like to live on the merry-go-round of go, go, go until he realized that it was taking him away from the one thing that truly mattered to him…his family. Chef James Avery is the chef owner of two restaurants in Asbury Park, NJ The Bonny Reed and The Black Swan Public House. Let’s jump into the conversation where Chef Avery shares how he manages his time…

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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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