How Restaurant Owner Used Coaching to Expand her Business

Hey there restaurant pros, it’s David Scott Peters and welcome to episode 88 of the Restaurant Prosperity Formula. I’ve been coaching restaurant owners since 2003 and the Restaurant Prosperity Formula is based on what the most successful restaurant owners I’ve worked with do on a daily basis to achieve their success. The basic premise of the formula centers around achieving prosperity, freedom of your restaurant, a financial freedom you deserve. To achieve prosperity, you have to follow a very specific formula made-up of leadership, systems, training, accountability, and taking action.

Now I want to tell you about our guest today, Jesse Klein. Jesse started a bakery specializing in cupcakes and custom wedding cakes. When COVID hit, she needed to pivot and rebranded as Rose Cafe, a fast casual breakfast, lunch and dessert cafe. And recently, she expanded her restaurant and doubled her square footage. With six years in business and eight years as a wife and mother, her life has been nothing short of busy. Listen in to our conversation as Jesse shares her journey from burnout to a happy, motivated restaurant owner who can only see a bright future ahead of her. I want to welcome Jesse Klein to the show today.

Jesse, I want to thank you so much for taking time to do this with me today.

Thank you so much for having me. I’m so excited to be here.

I hope so, because I’ve been after you for quite a while. I want to brag a little bit about you. When we first met, at least from my side of things, You were coming from what I would deem a lower volume restaurant. And usually an owner I don’t feel comfortable working with because it’s a premium coaching program. And to get you the return on your investment is not as easy. Like when you do million, 2 million plus a year, it’s so easy to find a point to and make that investment back.

But you had tenacity in saying you want to grow your business. That this was only the first stepping stone. And If I recall, you had to talk me into letting you into the program like, no, I don’t think it’s the right thing. Yes, I’m going to do this.

And I got to tell you, the reason why I’m so excited about bringing you on is, as we said before we started talking, at my last seminar, I was bragging about you because in my program, I talk about everybody needing an implementer, somebody to help them get **** done. And because you were so small, you didn’t have that person.

And I know for a fact that restaurant owners will not, cannot, 99.999% of the time do the work and that’s why we need an implementer, but you broke the mold. I mean, you got **** done. You kicked ***. You changed your business. You changed your life. And we’ll talk a little bit about it, but I think it’s truly a testament to who you are as a leader and somebody who said, by God, this business is going to grow. Whether I kill you, David, or not, it’s going to grow. So I’m really glad you’re here with me today.

What I’d like you to do is kind of start off with Talk about what life was like for you and your restaurant beforehand. Tell everybody a little bit about your restaurant, what it was like before you met, and maybe some of the challenges you were facing.

Okay. So I own Rose Cafe here in Florida. So I just passed my year anniversary, you know, a few weeks ago with coming onto your program. And I remember it was right around Thanksgiving time and just, I don’t know, I was like in such a bad place. I had a six month old baby, which I just been on maternity leave. I took six weeks off and my manager, the person I had brought on to run my business, which was pretty small, quit during my maternity leave and Also convinced my employees that I was a terrible person and so all of my staff kind of left and I had to close and I was just, this is my fifth year of just beating my head against the wall having this business.

And I just kind of told Ben, like your priorities really change when you bring a tiny human into the world. And it’s just like, I’m not doing this. You know, we’re not making any money. We’re spending all my time and just all this negative energy like I mean, I think I have one good try and we left or, we are walking away and we’ll, do something else. I can go get a job and actually make money, do anything else.

And my wonderful husband, he is just a research guru and he had followed your podcast and heard about you from somewhere else. And he was like, you really like this could be good for us. So he is the one who set up our discovery call and I’m so glad I did.

So our revenues were tiny. I mean, there still are, we’re up 60% from last year, which is good and it’s hard to be patient, but just my life is so different. Like right now I’m taking Tuesdays and Thursdays off, which never would have even happened before this program and I get to spend time with my little girl. And I mean, it’s just unbelievable, but just one year difference has made.

I mean, it’s just, I’m proud to have my business. I love going to work every day. I have my manager meetings because now I do have an implementer and yes, life is much easier with that person. So I’ll agree with you a little bit on that point that maybe I don’t think it’s a need right off the bat, but it is definitely a luxury.

I tell my managers all the time, good or bad, I love being here. I love coming to work. I love talking to you guys and just watching everything just operate so great. And I mean, it’s just. It’s really crazy to think it’s only been a year, but I mean, so happy to be here.

So talk a little bit about, so you literally, you have the baby, you lose a manager, you lose your team, you close the restaurant, and now you’ve got an infant and you’ve got to reopen your business. And in a tough time, like a real tough time, we’re coming out of COVID, it is not the easiest thing to do. And you already started off with a low volume. Now you started, share with everybody a little bit how you got into becoming a cafe because you started really with the idea of baking, correct?

Yes, so I just celebrated my 6th anniversary. I had a totally different concept when we opened. I was batter at bakery. so such a baby, naive baby back then. I was like, I’m just gonna, I was doing cakes for my home. I’m gonna make a few cupcakes every week that I can sell at the store and I’m just gonna do my custom cake thing.

And I mean, we got really busy. I mean, I had maybe one employee and it just got to where severe burnout. I just was working 100 hours a week. I mean, it was just awful and terrible. And it’s a good thing to be busy, but it’s like I had such a specialized thing. I would make these wedding cakes and beautiful birthday cakes. And I’m in a rural area. It’s really hard to hire to get help for that position.

And then also, I’ve never been a manager. I went to culinary school. I didn’t know how to manage people. So it’s just all these things compounding that I just, I worked all the hours.

And, like COVID was just honestly one of the, which sounds terrible saying, but for me, for my business, it was a blessing. Like every event was canceled, which meant no weddings, no birthdays, you know, all that froze. All of our income was gone. And it was like, all right, like we got to do something different. if we want to, even pay our power bill or rent this month, we got to figure something else out.

And, Ben was kind of like, people don’t eat cupcakes and cakes every day. But, they do eat breakfast and lunch every day. So we started slowly just adding in, a breakfast croissant and like a chicken salad croissant. And slowly people just really liked those items that they just kept asking for more and more and more.

So then January of 2021, it’s already burned out from cakes anyways. We decided, let’s switch our name. We kind of killed off Batter at Bakery to kind of sever, which still people call me Batter at Bakery. It’s been over 2 years, but whatever.

As long as they keep showing up.

Yeah, they keep showing up. Yeah, you can call me whatever you want as long as you can eat our food. But yeah, so 2021, we changed to Rose Cafe. We do breakfast, lunch. We still have our batter at Bakery Cupcakes that are, you know, extremely famous all over this area. So yeah, and just quit doing anything custom, which really was a great move for me mentally. Like I really struggle with, you know, the people who aren’t 100% happy and satisfied and stuff. And I think it is a little different when you’re making art and they’re like, I hate it, versus, you make a sandwich, it’s like, okay, so sorry, we’ll remake you another one.

So yeah, like that was, really a great transition for us.

And then did that for a while and made some more money, but then, Kind of just I’ve just always struggled again. Like I went to culinary school. I’ve worked in kitchens and you think every, you’re a good cook. Why can’t you open a restaurant?

Let’s explore that kind of for a second. So would you say one of your biggest challenges was that you were your best technician? You were your best cook, your best cashier, your best manager, your best everything. Were you trying to do everything yourself and overloading things?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I remember in one of our first group coaching calls, you asked us to go through what a typical day looks like for us. And then that really made me think, okay, I get there at 630. I go through, I do my little opening checklist and then I’m taking the orders and making the coffees and the sandwiches. And it’s like, okay, I’m missing all these things on our food order and I’m not managing these people because I’m getting so frustrated with them that I’m doing everything, but they can’t do it to my standards. So I just like a vicious cycle.

So yeah, absolutely. And like, as soon as you ask that question, it’s like, oh my gosh, like, I’m not an owner. I’m just like created the worst hobby slash job for me ever. with no days off. So I mean, that was like such a turning point for me.

It was just that simple little people in the class that are like, well, I do this and I do these managerial things and we have our meetings and then I go home with my family and it’s like, oh, like, I was like, I don’t belong here. But then I was like, oh no, hell no. Like I’m going to do whatever I need to do to change it. And so yeah.

And I think that is probably the biggest thing is if you listen to your journey you talk about burnout technically twice burnout from cakes and cupcakes and COVID kind of was a blessing but you pivoted the ugly word we talked about during COVID pivoted created a restaurant instead of just cupcakes and custom cakes and found yourself being your best employee again like you traded one job for another and getting burnout and frustrated again with that said You also had lower volumes and that meant that if you paid yourself, it was because you were your manager. Like you were the primary part of your labor and that’s probably the only way you were able to control it. Talk about labor, talk about cost of goods sold. What were those challenges like when you were still operating before you started working in the program?

So I don’t know. It’s just like so tough because In those times, I did not know my numbers at all whatsoever. And I felt like, for a few years, we were like, I never paid myself. I was always there, never paid myself. And I always felt like we were struggling to make our tiny payroll. And, it was terrible and so stressful and just always stressed out about money.

And then I hired a manager And I was paying her quite a bit for this area. And, that was stressful, but I was like, at least thank God I have, the help.

And, it’s just wasn’t charging enough for our custom cakes. we’re in a rural place. So I like to, be like, I like that we’re, kind of in the same price market as a supermarket, but we’re nicer. And it’s like, don’t be so dumb. Like, what is wrong with you? But so I don’t know, it was just so stressful all the time.

And I mean, it’s just like, I talked about this a few weeks ago in one of our calls. It’s like I had $77 go missing and I found out the day it happened. And it’s like back then, I mean, who knows, probably thousands could have been stolen, I don’t know, or just like wasted or anything.

And it’s like, you like to think no one would do that, but it’s, which I don’t even know if this was a stealing accident or, just an accident, but just like it’s so powerful just to know like exactly what your food cost is and exactly, just to have the numbers is just like, oh, we can’t afford this. Like I don’t have to stress about money because I know exactly if, you know, we’re over for labor this week or if we’re under, you know, it’s just You are now. You are now.

Yeah, absolutely.

For sure. Yeah, because it’s just like they always stress me out, but it’s like, oh, it’s actually a really great tool. to have the opposite. Like you don’t have to stress it just de-stresses like to know to have that.

And what a difference that makes in home life. I mean you cannot help but take the stress of not being able to wonder if you’re going to make your bills or payroll. That translates to home. There’s no way in hell that leaves your head. The stress is unbelievable. So just to be able to come home and not have to worry all the time, it gives you the ability to be present. And as we talk about is not miss those firsts. Like that the restaurant while it is for your family, it’s not the overriding, overarching thing that you’re going to miss when your daughter is able to start to T-ball or soccer or gymnastics or flute or whatever it may be. You’re going to be there because you’ve got a team working in place.

Do me a favor. What did you do before we started working together? What did you try or what did you use to try and make change beforehand? Was it books? Was it another, you know, was it a course, a seminar? Had you tried anything?

So I had hired a personal coach that was like a once a week call. Wasn’t really like restaurant specific, which helped, I think, kind of get the ball rolling to just even know that there were, things out there to help you. Like my husband loves to read, so he always be like, read this book, read this book. But it’s like, kind of tough when you’re stressed and just overwhelmed. I don’t want to come home and read a book on business and so my poor husband seriously tried everything. He’s like, listen to this podcast, do this. And it’s like, I can’t, it’s okay.

But I did find this one lady, her name is Ellen, and we talk once a week and she just gave me like simple, like no brainer stuff that I was just like too bogged down to even think about. And then we kind of I don’t know, kind of went down. My husband loves Tony Robbins. So he did some of like, the mindset he stuff. I just started to think positively. I mean, it truly is a miracle that I’m still married, like going through all this. But I mean, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, I guess.

And then I don’t, I think I, you know, I kind of told Ben I was thinking about, you know, maybe we should try something. So I found another program that was not restaurant specific, but kind of, I don’t know, like a course that helps you like how to manage your time and stuff. And I was like, I was thinking about doing this.

And he was like, actually you should think about this one because it’s like restaurant specific. And I was like, oh, well that makes sense. So yeah, and that’s been, yeah, absolutely thankful that. Ben literally led me to you, which was the best thing ever.

But you also had to be ready for that message. So the fact that you already worked with a coach and understood that you don’t know what you don’t know and it’s nice to have somebody to bounce things off that it’s not related to you because sometimes I do it at my house. My daughter used to all the time move from volleyball to now as a tattoo artist with business. Sometimes I need to shut up and listen. She just wants to unload, but I want to fix it, fix it.

So when your spouse or your significant other, your parent, your whoever friend wants to fix it all the time, sometimes you don’t want it fixed. You just want somebody to shut up and listen. So that creates a challenge.

Plus you’re never an expert in your own backyard. So you know, when you’re so close, it’s often very difficult to see past just relationship things. just little ticks that can set one off versus I’m really trying to help. So beautiful part is you’re ready for the message. He is still hanging in there and making sure he can help.

What made you decide to one, set up a call with me and two, ultimately join?

So I first talked to Ryan and I mean, so I had this discovery call with the other program and I was like, you know, this is I need something, I need something, I didn’t even know that, honestly, I kind of disagree with you about the volumes thing. Like I feel like your course needs to be a prerequisite for anyone who is dumb enough to think, oh, I’m going to open a restaurant. Like I really think there needs to be. some sort of course that you go through because it’s like, how else? I mean, even if you managed, a restaurant, I don’t even think you would be prepared to run one. Like there’s just so many things.

So I had my discovery call with Ryan and I was like, oh my God, this is perfect. And then like, I told him my volumes and he’s like, I don’t think you’re like right for this program.

And I was just like, no, I don’t think so. Like, no, I am right for this program. Like he was like, you know, it is a big financial commitment. And I’m like, it doesn’t matter. Like this is my life. Like I had spent five years, you know, like that’s not nothing, you know, like most of my 20s. just, and it’s like, just to have someone be like, I’m sorry, like, I wish we could help you, but we can’t. I was like, nope, absolutely not. Like, nope, give me, he’s like, okay, like, I’ll talk to David, see if he’ll talk to you. And I was like, just give me on that call. And he’s like, probably like, who is this crazy lady?

But yeah, so as soon as I talk to you, you’re like, I don’t know. And I was like, nope, nope, absolutely not. Like, I will not disappoint you. You’re like, you better not. And I was like, I will do the work. I will do whatever it takes.

I mean, for me, the biggest thing was I didn’t want to close because, pride is a lot of it. And it’s like, I live in a small town. I grew up here and it’s like, I didn’t want to close. Like if there’s something we could do, anything we could do, you know, I wanted to do it. So that was kind of.

Well, that goes hand in hand with your growth mindset. As entrepreneurs, we’re sometimes eternal optimists. And we think next month, it’s the next thing. It’s the, I’m just right around, just if I could turn the corner, this is going to change. But sometimes we don’t make the change. We don’t do.

And that was in our discovery call. Like people don’t believe me when I’m on calls that I go, I don’t let everybody into the program. Sometimes it’s mindset. Sometimes it is, again, lower volume. And it’s like, I don’t feel good. My core values don’t say, I can get you return on that investment.

But as our call went on, we kind of had an agreement and that was, I was only letting you in if you were going to either expand your current location or move. And you said, by God, that’s what I’m going to do, because that now becomes an investment in your future. Because it’s very difficult to make a change that’s going to have a dramatic impact when we don’t have the sales to begin with. But if you have sales, it can cure a lot of ills. But more importantly, when you run efficiently, it can make a huge, a dramatic difference to your bottom line.

And Just so people know, as Jessie’s smiling and saying, no, I’m going to do this. She really did. Like, I was not allowed not to allow her in the program. And that alone, that tenacity was why I let you in. But more importantly, it was so impressive to watch you because again, you didn’t have an implement. How many employees did you have? You had two or three employees. That’s all you had when you started, right? I mean, that’s small. And so you didn’t have a lot of people to delegate. You had to learn, you had to do.

And so all of a sudden you join the program and you start with getting the work done, but you still have, you have a slower progress in the beginning because you didn’t have the help.

So do me a favor. Talk a little bit about as you started implementing the systems and going through the program, what were some of the first changes you made and what did that do for you?

So first changes, like I think it’s week four is when we bring on Jolt. And that was the biggest thing. Like I’ve kind of said before, I had no management experience. And it was just this vicious cycle of me so frustrated with my employees because, I made these checklists for them, but then, they just get the little Sharpie or dry erase marker and, write it all down. Oh yeah, I did it. And it’s like, well, someone didn’t. Well, I don’t know who it was. And it was just, I get so frustrated because that’s not how I operate in my life. Like I try to do everything the best I can and I just really didn’t understand why everyone else wasn’t this way. But, that’s why, I don’t know.

So anyways, Jolt was one of the first things that I did, which was huge because it created accountability. It made sure things were getting done and just like the mental like offload that was to just be like, did the open sign like so many days I’d come to work like after an hour after it was open and the open sign is on. It’s like, how do we make money if we don’t look open? It’s like, you know, my employees are just sitting there and it just, you know, I just always had employee problems.

And I think that was because I didn’t know how to manage them, you know, which if you’re the owner, you have a terrible manager or terrible employees, like that’s your fault. You picked them, you trained them. Like, you know, like that is 100% on you. And, just this whole past year with my manager leaving me and taking all my employees, like that has been like the biggest lesson for me. Like that is 100% on me. Like, and such a learning experience for me.

And they always like Avery always says this, that Jolt is just this living, breathing thing that just is constantly changing. And it’s like so true. It’s, you know, every week I’m adding or changing or taking away something that can be different. And it’s not that your employees don’t try, it’s just like they don’t know. And if they don’t know, how are they supposed to know? And you can tell them once, but then like, do you remember everything that you were only told once? Like, no, I forget. Probably like I’m expecting again. So I probably right now only retain like 4% of anything that is said to me.

So like I think Jolt, I mean, just the accountability of Jolt was huge.

And I don’t even know, like I was talking to Ben earlier, like what was, I’ve been trying to reflect on what has been my biggest change and how I manage. And it’s like, I don’t know if Jolt’s kind of just done the work for me because I still feel like I hate confrontation and all these things. And I don’t really feel like I’ve grown too much as a manager, but so maybe it’s just done most of the work for me or just all these subtle changes over the year that I haven’t really noticed. But that, which I’m sure most of your clients say, like that has been a huge thing for me.

And I mean, just freeing up all that time so I could actually, start looking into our food costs and stuff like that.

And I think that’s really the thing is you’ve learned to impose your will without being there. That checklist, that closed to open mentality. But you kind of glanced over it a little bit. You talked about Avery, Avery Ward, who is a member mentor. You talked about Ryan James, who set you up with a discovery call, but also a member mentor, and there’s the group coaching calls, which you talked about too.

Talk a little bit about having a member mentor, Avery, on a weekly basis to be able to talk to, and then what it’s like on a weekly basis for the group coaching call. How did that support you? Because you did zero support. Again, you had two, three employees at one point in time. You did not have this huge staff that most restaurants are used to.

So I mean, I am an introvert. So at first, the weekly coaching calls just terrified me to death. But then after a couple of weeks, you’re like, my gosh, these people are like, they’re just like me, but they have restaurants all over the world and they have the exact same problems that I have. And A lot of them are just so simple, but just like talking about them and then all these other people will, this is what we did and it worked great. This is what you should try. And it’s like, oh my gosh, it’s like magic, but it’s not. It’s just, you know, sometimes when you’re so down in the details, it’s hard to think, you know, big.

And, you know, I really looked forward to the weekly calls. I mean, it was a huge commitment. We kind of My husband and I sat down and we’re like, all right, we got six months. We’re not doing anything. Like, this is what we’re doing. Like, someone wants to go to dinner, sorry. Nope, can’t do it. We got to do homework. But I mean, so happy we did.

And Ryan was actually my member mentor. And I mean, there were so many things. I just like text him like, hey, what do I do? And he’s like, oh, easy, just do this. And it’s like, you know, this is, it’s like really magic. I mean, just to have that group of people

And I really didn’t expect, which I know probably everyone says that for that to be your favorite thing about the program, but I mean, it really was. I try to make it to the monthly calls now, and I still get so much out of it. The bar never stops moving. You just got to keep on getting better. And all these people are kind of doing exactly what you’re doing. So that’s great.

It is amazing how when people, lack of a better term, we say graduate. It’s really you don’t graduate. You just keep going. But graduate from the RTI program, that to a person, it’s like, can I keep coming on the calls weekly? No, you can come monthly now. It’s like, but I like, you get used to that camaraderie.

You know, I don’t, it’s hard to describe to people that it’s not just, hey, you may come to a call and not have a question, but you’ve learned from five other people and their questions and their advice. You get re-energized to understand that you’re not the only one with those problems and somebody else has a fix that makes more sense than even sometimes that I come up with because I’m not the expert on everything. I don’t know pieces of equipment or different pieces of software or how to handle certain things.

And you’ve got this group that All they care about is helping each other. It is amazing because again, we’re used to being alone. And for you, alone was damn near fully there because again of where your size was.

What was it when you started seeing results? What happened? What was going on that whether it was financial or time or whatever after the checklist part, when did you start to see results?

So almost immediately, my biggest thing right off the bat was employees. I hired a group of employees. probably, I mean, most of them are still with me today. So I mean, that just goes to even say like, before I was retaining employees, maybe six months. But now, it’s been over a year. The first girl I hired, she’s now my kitchen manager. and it’s just like such a good feeling. I just had my Christmas party. I went from year zero, now I have 10 employees. I mean, that’s quite a big jump. And like we have our weekly meetings and everyone just seems so happy to be there. And

So I had a call with my bookkeeper last week and she said she went to some conference and there was a bunch of keynote speakers and restaurateurs, big chains and stuff. And their biggest pain point is employees. Like they cannot retain employees. And it’s like, in one of our calls, I think it was a few months ago, the monthly calls, like there’s not a labor problem, there’s a culture problem.

And I really do think like that is so true. Like All my employees are happy to be there, or at least they’re really good at pretending, but they keep showing up and doing a really great job.

And I mean, even just like in our reviews that we get, we get multiple reviews every week, and they all say, great food. excellent service. All the employees are so nice and so friendly. And it’s like, that’s huge right now. Like last week, my husband and I went to Panera and then a couple weeks before we went to Chipotle. Like I love those places. And both places, like the employees were just grumpy and like the place is a mess. And it was just like, you know, it is a problem at most places.

But like I’m so happy that it’s not, you know, at my place and I’m, you know, just really want to, I’m actually having an employee meeting today at 3.30. It’s like, I just really want to keep raising the bar and, encouraging them to, be the best they can be. And like, I’m just so happy to have them there.

So that was the, I mean, right off the bat. I mean, just really a culture change, which I know had to do a lot with my attitude. Like if I’m stressed out and miserable, like I’m probably not the nicest person. And like I said, I love going to work now. I love all of my employees and that makes for a nicer person. So employees was definitely the first thing that changed for me.

And so as that happened, as your employees stayed with you, as your service levels went up, your cleanliness levels went up, and you shared your sales are up now, you expanded next door so people understand you added more seats, but you’re up 60% in sales. What about your food, labor costs, or bottom line? Have those improved to a point where you’re pleased with what’s going on as you still build?

Yes. So I just finished my session. We just got reopened the second week of October. So we’re December now. So our revenues are going up. Sometimes I can be a little impatient. We’re not exactly where, I’m still too low to be your client, but we are definitely trending. Like next year we are all set up that hopefully we’re going to hit that mark.

It is really hard to be patient because I mean, we’re up 60% from last year, but we were also closed for a month while renovating. So I mean, even that is huge in the first part of the year. we were still operating in our tiny location.

But I mean, the way we’ve been operating last month and this month, we’ll easily hit those goals, which is very exciting because I love to, I want to continue to build up my team and elevate them and pay them more. really, really want to be that, continue to be that employer of choice. And that’s really important to me.

So things are getting easier financially. We’re not quite there yet. We still got to finish paying for a remodel and we added, doubled our square footage, which is awesome because We were operating in, under 1400 square feet and we were kind of like maxed out. Like I didn’t even have a walk-in cooler. We just had multiple like 3 door coolers and one oven, one tiny turbo chef, like no real kitchen, you know.

So we couldn’t really take on catering or anything because we had nowhere to put the food once it was made to keep it cold while the customer, you know, came to pick it up. So I mean, we just have so much more room for growth, which is huge. Like if you’re tapped out, you can’t make any more money. You can only fit so many employees in a tiny space. So yeah, I’m really excited for this next year.

To you got there because I think the side effect of you having time from the beginning with the checklist and then having employees and that they’re staying and they’re doing is you’re leading your company. You’re working strategically. You had the time to think about, do I find another location? Do we expand next door? And what people don’t know is, You did the damn renovations yourself. You did the design yourself. You did 90% of everything yourself, which on top of that, by still running the business, still growing your family, being home at least two days a week and so on, it’s really impressive.

And what I’m most excited about is as you hit those revenue goals, is that this becomes not just something that pays you, but actually makes you money. And that’s exciting for me to see because of where you started. What were some of the unexpected changes you got from the program?

I don’t know. I think probably the biggest one is moving from being a technician to being an owner. And honestly, it’s been kind of tough, like making that transition mentally. And I kind of had to take a step back and what do I do now? like I’m not needed there all the time. And it’s like, it was like kind of hard. It’s like I’m home, but I kind of want to be at work. And then I’m at work and I kind of want to be at home.

So I’ve really had to take a step back and I’m starting to look into some marketing stuff. And I don’t know, like, and it sounds so silly to say because, you know, last year I was miserable. I just didn’t want to be at work. And now it’s like, I went through this phase where I’m like, don’t they notice I’m not there? Like, I don’t know, like, it’s, but that was kind of like a really unexpected thing for me.

Also, I will say, since doing the group coaching calls every week, I’ve tried to encourage and reach out to some local restaurant owners and befriend them and just like let them know like whatever you need, like I’m here. Like we’re not competition. We’re all doing our own separate things. So I think like that support is very important. So not that, you know, I know everything by any means, like there’s just most days and I’m like, who let me open this business. But.

More than most now, you truly look at and it’s not just knowing you’ve done it. You have personally implemented the change. You like again, you talk to any of the neighboring restaurants are probably still ******** about employees and you’re keeping employees. You know, they’re probably ******** about quality. You’ve got the systems in place to make sure you’ve got quality, probably ******** about labor costs and food costs. You’ve got those things in line. What you’re working now on is revenue.

And so, you know, You are a good operator, but more importantly, you’ve become the leader your restaurant needs. You’ve created an environment, a positive work culture where you become an employer of choice. Like it is amazing to watch again from the beginning when you lost all the employees to that they’re all staying with you. There are plenty of restaurant jobs out there. There’s plenty of jobs out there. but they’re staying. And that’s a testament to you as a leader. And I think you’ve got to give yourself a lot more credit for that. So someday I’ll keep pumping you and you’ll believe it.

Yeah, I had I was sitting in the office one day. It was like 2 weeks ago. And oh my gosh, it just I mean, I had this employee who she was talking to the other girls and she’s like, I’ve got a girlfriend who works at this place in Babcock Ranch. And She just tells me every day she goes to work and she’s so upset and she cries and the manager tells her if she messes up one more time, I’m gonna fire you. And she’s like, I’m sorry girl, I can’t relate. I just love my job and I love coming to work. And I’m like, oh my gosh, like. That’s just insane. Like it just made me so happy and just amazing.

That is the best. And that’s why they care about everything they do. They care about the customers, care about you. It’s theirs. You’ve created community. And I think that’s amazing. And that’s the hardest part to do in the restaurant business. You know, slinging food and doing checklists or accounting stuff, that’s easy. That’s the company culture that matters. What does life look like for you today?

So I’m, I don’t know, I don’t work very much. I work 9 to 3, four days a week, which is nice. Kind of dream schedule, which is awesome. I got two days off, whole three days including Sunday. We’re closed on Sunday. So take Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday off, which is really nice.

We are expecting another baby in February, which normally we, we’re in Florida, so we get all the snowbirds. It’s our busy season from January to a little bit after Easter. So, a few years ago I would have, I had Ellie in June, which is off season and **** hit the fan and it was awful and had to close. But I’m so confident, you know, I’m having a baby in the busiest time of year and it’s like, I’m not even worried because I know my team has got this. And That’s huge.

And Ben and I are at a point where, we want to have a great year next year and then hopefully the year after that, we’d love to explore like doing this again. Like let’s have Rose Cafe 2.0. Like, yeah, which is awesome to even think. Like the ultimate dream is to one day to have it to where this venture can support both of us and Ben can, you know, He’s a farmer by trade, but even if that’s him commercially growing all our food or, I worry about him managing my sweet employees, but I don’t know, we can find something for him to do.

There’s plenty to do. There’s plenty to do. Yeah.

Well, that’s fantastic. So life is good. I mean, like I’m really excited for next year to continue to get our revenues up and work on getting, I don’t know, there’s always something to do, like where our food costs can be a little better. We’re at like a 30% right now, obviously want to be more towards like 25%, but I mean, there’s time for all of that.

I mean, we just went through a remodel. I mean, I’m a very let’s do it all now kind of person. So this has been such a year for transitions and patience for me, which has been a challenge. But I don’t know, it doesn’t all happen overnight. So I mean, just trying to stay patient and yeah.

Well, it’s the one small change that you do over and over and over again, you know, changes your trajectory for the positive. And you are a great example of that. I’ve got a couple more questions for you. I’ll let you go. But the first one is, what would you tell somebody who’s thinking about looking at our program possibly joining? Do you have any advice for them?

Yeah, I mean, David will let you in, then go for it. I mean, like, seriously, it’s, I mean, we would not be open without your program 100%. Like, it just, we would have closed. which I don’t know, there’s just so many things you could think, what if, what would be different? It’s like a lot of it probably wouldn’t be good. And I know for a fact that we would not have a business. And I’m like, it brings me so much joy now that I’m so thankful that we did it. And 100%, if you have the opportunity to do it, like you should absolutely do it.

Well, I’m thankful you forced me to bring you on more than anybody because I get to brag about you. Like I said, I was bragging about you at the seminar. You are going to be in my speeches from here to forever as the one person that said, I am coming in, I’ve got low volumes, but I’m going to **** *** and I’ve got no implementer. With that said, I really appreciate you doing this with me today. And I don’t just blow smoke up your rear end. You know that I’ve been after you to do this because I have been so impressed with you. If there was one last thing you wanted to share with anybody, a quote, a book, a something, anything we didn’t talk about, what would that be?

I would just say just do the freaking work. I mean, you know, like six months is a long time. But it’s really not. I mean, that has been one of the, all these old people say, your kids grow up so fast. And it’s like, once you have a kid and you have them growing up so fast, it’s like, my gosh, six months is nothing. And it’s here today and it’s gone tomorrow.

It’s like, just do the work. I mean, in anything, like in business and fitness and your marriage, you know, if you just like, you know, take the time to do the work, you know, if I wouldn’t have done the work six months ago, I’d either have a ton of time because I didn’t have a business or I’d have no time because I was still going through it and I don’t get to spend any time with my kid. So it’s like, I don’t know, do it now so it’s easier later.

I love that. I’ve seen online it bouncing around, you know, choose your heart. You know, you make time for fitness now or you’re making time for sickness later. You know, it’s the same and everything.

So I mean, that has been the biggest thing. I remember just being down in it and getting stressed out about our weekly homework and everything. And on our weekly calls, calm down, you’ll catch up. It’s fine. But it’s like, that was a year ago already. Like, how did that time go by? So it’s like, I’m so glad. So glad we did it. And yeah.

Awesome. I appreciate you very, very much. And we might have to do a follow up sometime soon.

Yeah. hopefully we can do it a year from now and we’re just wildly successful.

I look forward to it. Thanks, Jesse.

All right. Thank you.

Hey, that was an awesome episode. I want to thank you for taking the time to take action on building a better, more prosperous restaurant. Before you go, I want to give you these three thoughts.

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