Restaurant Unstoppable with Eric Cacciatore

In this episode, we discuss what can happen once you understand your job as a restaurant owner is to make it about everyone BUT yourself, why you should view neighboring restaurants as comrades; not competitors, knowing your strengths, finding the right partner to offset your weaknesses, staying in your lane, the power of masterminding, The name, La Finca Chiquita- or The Little Farmhouse- has been a part of Oscar Cavazos's life since childhood, as it was the name of the family restaurant his parents opened decades prior in Gilmer, TX. Today, Along with his wife, Ashley, Oscar is the Owner and Operator of La Finca Chiquita in Allen, TX. The restaurant has become a staple in the community, and it is safe to say Oscar's making his parents proud. I met Oscar through the mastermind I'm hosting. I've just been so impressed with who Oscar is as a person. He shows up to every meeting with such positivity, He always hits his goals. He even lost 30 pounds last month! I just really like Oscar and felt the need to make an example of him. When I asked Oscar to join me as a guest on the podcast he said, "Eric, are you sure you want to dilute the quality of your guest?" HA! Oh yeah. He's also humble.

In this episode, we discuss growing your company by distributing loyalty and allegiance to your team, providing feedback to your team members, why you should have scorecard for all your managers and team members, how success comes from hiring good people then developing them into amazing coaches and leaders, surrounding yourself with specialist, why servant leaders make the best managers, why bad experiences can be learning opportunities too, the power of thinking outside the box and diversify your business, the role of market research during expansion, the benefits of the entrepreneurial approach VS the corporate approach, why fast-casual is the way of the future, and the benefits of fast-casual to an operator. With over approximately 40 years of experience in hospitality, Bill Post got his humbles start at Levy Restaurants back in 1978. Today and multiple businesses later, Bill is the founder and CEO of WJP Restaurant Group a multi-dimensional restaurant company with locations scattered about the country and Founder of WJPost Restaurant Advisors, offering consultancy to forward-thinking owners and entrepreneurs of small to medium sized restaurant companies.

In this episode, Nick Fosberg reveals new marketing strategies that are bringing him and his clients the highest ROI out of any marketing strategies they've used. Discover how they are using the e-mail address to NOT e-mail them, but connect with their customers in other platforms for pennies on the dollar and how they get them back in the door. Nick also reveals why he's giving away over $3,000 worth of new training that will help you take 10 hours a week off your plate and allow you to put automated new customer and existing customer marketing systems in place to keep sales coming in, even during traditionally slow times. Nick Fosberg has become a leading authority on restaurant and bar marketing and promotions. He has helped hundreds of bar owners all over the US and Canada take their business to the next level by applying radically different direct response marketing strategies.

In this episode, we discuss: how to scale from a dinner club to a brick and mortar operation, why they chose Tock to handle reservations with their dinner club, treating growth like a marathon, why you should invest in system and culture training before you open your restaurant, implementing bottom line change, managing work-life balance, and being clear about expectations. Joshua Kulp and Christine Cikowski are the chef partners behind Honey Butter Fried Chicken located in Chicago, IL. What started as a Sunday Night Dinner Club has evolved into something truly amazing. Since 2013, Honey Butter Fried Chicken has believed in awesome ingredients, stellar service, and strong community, They also believe that you should feel good about your food—where it comes from, how it's prepared, how it is served and by whom.

In this episode, we'll discuss: Marketing. Great food is not the only way to make money and be successful in the restaurant industry. Direct marketing. Direct response marketing. Small business marketing. Highly-targeted marketing. Royalty Rewards. Cost-effective marketing. You need to have a birthday club! The most important thing is a good online presence. Making it easy and encouraging to have customers leave positive reviews online. Constantly be in contact with your customers about incentives to come be your guest. The importance of taking action.

In this episode we discuss, being sincere, creating impacting relationships with both guest & team members, being genuine & authentic to yourself, starting small & scaling up, and getting experience before opening your own restaurant. Originally from the Northeast, Michael Pazdon started sinking his teeth into the hospitality industry after moving to New York City in 1999. It was his time in NYC when he fell in love with food and drink. After 11 years in New York, he moved to Napa Valley and ended up staying there for over 5 years. Around 2015, it was time to head back home to the Northeast where today, Michael is the Founder and Mixologist of the Wallingford Dram in Kittery, ME.

An Arkansas native coming from a family of incredibly rich and interesting food-related history, Scott McGehee trained at the California Culinary Academy and cut his teeth at Chez Panisse working under Alice Waters for many years. Today Scott is a rabid advocate of treating people and contemporaries in the industry with absolute kindness, dignity, and respect. He exercises this advocacy as Executive Chef/Partner at Yellow Rocket Concepts, a Little Rock restaurant partnership, which is known as Central Arkansas's culinary juggernaut. In this episode we discuss: Never giving up. If you want something you need to chase it. You need to be consistently positive. learn to communicate effectively. Utilize the path of least resistance to get things done. Lift struggling coworkers up, don't put them down for their mistakes. Paying your dues in the kitchen to learn and become better. Cooking is about more than food. Food is about human relationships, not just sustenance and taste. Be calm and kind. Baby steps are key to expansion. If you're not improving and growing every day, you're dying.If you don't know something just ask. You should be continually reinventing your restaurant.

In this episode we discuss: Customer service IS THE BOTTOM LINE! Learning how to gain skills with face-to-face interactions. Transformative relationships. Training your staff. How do people learn and how do we successfully implement tactics for learning. When a restaurant closes it affects a large community, not just the owners. Being supportive of your co-workers even beyond work-related issues. Must succeed in your personal life to succeed in your professional life. Don't go to work just for the paycheck. Your training tactics should be flexible to the kind of learning your staff is more apt to succeed at. All problems in a restaurant start at the top. Managers shouldn't just be putting out fires but preventing them. Bringing people up to your level will empower them and you. Make yourself better to make others better. Don't just accept mediocrity. Keep moving forward. Andrew Carlson is a restaurant consultant and coach with focused knowledge on personal growth, leadership, training, customers service and social media marketing and he writes on these topics at Andrew-Carlson.com . As of recently, he is also an author and just published his first book Customer Service is the Bottom Line.

In this episode we discuss: surrounding yourself with people who want to make a difference in the world, who aren't just out to benefit themselves. Hard work and believing in yourself pays off. Providing employees with metro cards to get to and from work. at the end of the day if you don't support your community your community won't support you. being a "people person" helps in this industry. Have someone to hold you accountable because you need someone to push you and guide you when you need it. You can't teach hospitality. Increasing staff productivity. Believing in the core values of the company you work for. There is a place out there for you but it will take an effort to find it. Don't tackle a problem right away; be patient and formulate a plan first. Service and hospitality are completely different things. You should want your co-workers to move on and do better things if they want it. If you screw something up just fix it! Don't expect people to come to your restaurant just because you open the doors. Patrick Patterson has always been drawn to people and their stories. After a stint documenting Texas Death Row for publications such as Playboy, Patterson's career took a different path, restaurants. Patterson, who as a kid, had standard rolls of washing dishes, cleaning spuds, bussing tables, and getting fired for eating croutons and dressing in the walk-in cooler! In 2008, Patterson landed on the steps of the Food Fight Restaurant Group in Madison, WI where he quickly rose from part-time bartender to first time GM & owner. In 2015, Patterson and his family relocated to the NH Seacoast. Today, Patterson is the GM of Block Six, the restaurant at 3S Artspace, a local arts non-profit in Portsmouth.

In this episode, we discuss the importance of human resources, the core of HR being genuinely caring, why there isn't a problem with finding good people but instead it is a problem with good people finding good employment, going beyond transactional relationships to transformative relationships, and living a life that is true and transparent. As a human resource professional with more than 15 years' experience, Carrie has dedicated her entire career to helping restaurant owners and operators navigate the complexities of HR policy. For more than a decade, Carrie served as the Director of Human Resources for Potbelly Sandwich Works where she was a key player in the ten-year expansion of Potbelly, which included growing the chain from three restaurants in one market to more than 200 restaurants in ten markets. With her success at Potbelly Sandwich Works, she founded Restaurant HR Group in 2010.