Podcasts

Jul112019

Episode #170 The Skinny On A POWERFUL BRAND

I was blown away this week speaking with Reed Allen Slobusky – he’s the consummate impresario restaurateur. Passion drives this business, but so does marketing genius, financial acumen and a finger on the pulse of what diner’s want in a restaurant. Listen to this episode of the Restaurant RockStars Podcast, get creative and follow Reed’s lead on this. If you have one location or many locations, build and run a “BRAND”. Its truly how to open a restaurant, how to run a restaurant and how to increase restaurant business.

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Jul22019

Episode #169 A New Take On The Labor Shortage

The biggest restaurant challenge today is finding and keeping a great staff! Doesn’t matter where you live or run your restaurant, unemployment is at record lows. In this episode of the Restaurant Rockstars Podcast, we explore an innovative way of recruiting. I’m speaking with last year’s Gubernatorial candidate from Maine, who now heads up the “Workforce Development Committee” for Hospitality Maine. I’m on this committee so I’ve had a first hand look and front row seat for a new program that finds, recruits and apprentices staff for restaurants and lodging properties.

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Jun262019

Episode #168 How to Grow Profits & Please Customers with Online Orders

Fact is 82% of the Dining Public Order Out! If your restaurant isn’t taking online orders, you’re missing lots of sales and potential profit. I have always believed that you can’t have too many profit centers in your restaurant and this one is a must have. Problem is many systems require you to have multiple tablets from each of the delivery platforms to receive orders. Talk about a nightmare. How could your staff possibly keep it all straight without messing up orders, not to mention the wasted food, lost profits, clutter and storage issues. That’s just crazy. But today, I’m talking with an industry veteran who’s disrupting the old way with an innovative online ordering solution!

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Jun192019

Episode #167 Dream Candidates For Your Restaurant Kitchen

Does your operation have a “Plan B”? A backup when the unexpected occurs? Most of the time this happens in the kitchen. You just got notice from your chef that they’re moving on to your competitor. Your customers love your food and now the person responsible for making it all happen just gave you two weeks. Are you feeling the heat? Well no worries. Today I’m talking with Mr. Daryle Degan, a charming Scot who noticed both an increase in demand from restaurants to find quality staff and the struggles candidates faced when navigating their way to the perfect job.

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Jun132019

Episode #166 A Little Love, Salt and an Epic Restaurant Comeback

I loved this episode. Passion runs deep in all restaurants, but the magic formula to creating a truly great restaurant can be elusive. Even more so when you take an established and iconic brand and turn it into something completely new. Today, I’m speaking with Ms. Sylvie Gabriele who accomplished just that. She transformed her father’s 37 year old Los Angeles restaurant and re-branded it with her own vision in every way. In fact along with other accolades, her new restaurant “Love & Salt”, was named “LA’s Best Restaurant Comeback Story” by Forbes Magazine.

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Jun62019

Episode #165 How a Great Website Drives Profits!

The key to all of this is a great restaurant website. One that’s designed to be mobile-friendly and SEO optimized so potential customers can find you. Best of all, wouldn’t it be great if you could update your website yourself on the fly, without waiting for a web designer to do it for you. Big changes or small changes, adding press and publicity, etc.. Its easy and you can do it even if you’re not tech-savvy. Today I’m speaking with Bentobox, creators of great restaurant websites. Whether you have an existing website or need one from scratch Bentobox can help.

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May302019

Episode #164 How to add a new Custom Branded Profit Center

Selling food and beverage is NOT enough. Your restaurant needs multiple profit centers. Our goal is to bring you new ideas, inspiring guests and powerful tools to help improve your restaurant. So here’s a story: Professional musician travels the country, constantly ordering out at restaurants. He sees a broken system and a better way to streamline the online ordering process. It just so happens, he also has a tech background and creates a better way.

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May232019

Episode #163 Regular Guys Building an Unstoppable Brand!

Two regular guys with a humble story who created a unique product, opened a small shop, then another and now they’re on location 13 in multiple states. We’ll learn how systems are the “key” to running and maintaining that all important consistency in multiple locations. How finding, inspiring and surrounding themselves with talented and motivated people are a huge component in rocking their brand. How never being afraid to experiment is really how to open a restaurant and how to run a restaurant.

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May162019

Episode #162 How to DECREASE Costs by 12% and Find Money in your Restaurant

When I ran restaurants I was obsessed with Profit. Not just saving costs, but squeezing every dime of profit across the operation. In this episode you’ll learn: How to save 8 – 12% on inventory purchasing, cloud based software that manages your food and beverage Inventory as wll as recipe management, depletion and menu costing. Believe me, so many restaurants are missing these critical details at their peril. We’re talking about saving money and finding money.

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May92019

Episode #161 The Soul Of A Great Restaurant

Hans and I speak about cultivating and nurturing a great staff, the importance of daily training, maintaining the all-important financial controls, creating a warm inviting ambiance that captures the diner’s imagination and the marketing strategy that defines the brand. We even talk about how to share the wealth between front and back of house. In a sea of competition whether you’re new to the business or a veteran, this approach demonstrates how to open a restaurant, how to run a restaurant and how to increase restaurant business

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May22019

Episode #160 Email Marketing Superheroes Dish Tips For Restaurants

Tune in to this episode to find out how to increase sales in a restaurant through an amazingly effective Marketing Strategy. I’m a huge believer in building that all important “Affinity” with your customers. This was super-powerful when I ran restaurants and it still is today and here’s the “key”. We’ll learn the key-steps to building a list, getting deep engagement from your list, tapping customer data through effective surveys and using that feedback to increase restaurant sales and profit. This is how to run a restaurant folks.

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Apr242019

Episode #159 Decades of Experience and Advice from an Industry Veteran

What if you could gain decades of operating experience in just an hour? All the ideas that you could instantly execute, the headaches and pitfalls you could avoid, not to mention the leg up on your competition. Stay tuned. The “key” is to listen to this episode and then run right out and join your state restaurant association. Today, I’m speaking with Mr. John Barker the President and C.E.O. of the Ohio State Restaurant Association. John is an industry veteran with an illustrious prior career in numerous positions with Wendy’s. Now he’s passionate about helping his members, restaurants and his students succeed.

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