October 22, 2025 • 40 mins
In this episode of Restaurant Catering Smarts, Michael Attias welcomes Christin Marvin, founder and CEO of Solutions by Christin. With over 20 years in the hospitality trenches—from line cook to multi-unit operator—Christin now helps restaurant owners and leaders create sustainable success without burning out in the process.
They dive into what it really means to build resilient teams, retain top talent, and lead with clarity—even when the kitchen is on fire (literally or metaphorically). Christin opens up about her early days in a small Missouri town slinging tacos at her favorite Mexican restaurant, and how that journey led to her becoming a leadership coach and consultant to independent restaurants across the country.
You’ll hear insights on:
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What’s driving burnout in restaurant leadership—and how to stop it.
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The power of culture, communication, and clarity in growing your team.
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How to turn overwhelm into opportunity with a fresh leadership mindset.
Whether you’re managing one unit or many, this episode offers practical, heartfelt wisdom to help you lead better, live better, and build a restaurant business that doesn’t run you into the ground.
Restaurant Catering Smarts is proudly sponsored by CaterZen Catering Software. Turn your catering chaos into calm—sign up for a free software walkthrough today.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:31):
Hello again, I'm Michael Attias, your host of Restaurant Catering Smarts and today's guestis Kristen Marvin, founder and CEO of Solutions by Kristen.
With more than two decades in the hospitality industry from line cook to multi-unitoperations.
Kristen has become a trusted leadership coach, author and speaker for independentrestaurant owners.
(00:52):
At the helm of Solutions by Kristen, she partners with restaurant leaders to tackle theirtoughest challenges, preventing burnout, increasing retention, strengthening leadership
teams, and building sustainable, thriving businesses.
Kristen brings a unique blend of hands-on restaurant experience and coaching insights intohelping restaurateurs level up their leadership, their culture, and their bottom line.
(01:14):
And we're excited to have her on the show today.
But before we get started, let's take a minute to recognize our sponsor, CaterZen CateringSoftware.
They help restaurants turn their catering chaos into calm.
Discover why restaurants trust CaterZen to save them time and increase sales.
Go to caterzen.com and sign up for a free walkthrough of their software.
Now let's dive into this episode.
(01:36):
Welcome, Kristen, how are you doing today?
I'm great, how are you?
Michael, thanks so much for having me.
thanks for being here.
I appreciate it.
Not my normal backdrop.
I'm in Michigan today.
I sort of record this from wherever I am, sort of leading the nomadic or semi-nomadiclifestyle.
So uh one of the first things I love to do is sort of an icebreaker question.
(02:01):
So if you give me a number between one and 300, we'll pull one up.
I'll go 28, which is my birthday.
Okay.
Your home is about to be hit by a tornado.
You have 10 minutes to grab a few things and get out.
(02:23):
What would you take?
That's a great question.
I have to take my two doodles.
uh are Chef and Madeline.
They are my squad, my homies.
I would take, it's probably what a lot of people would say, but I would take what photos Icould.
Luckily now most of that is digitized and could take with me.
(02:45):
So definitely need my phone or my computer.
So I've got all my memories there.
And I would probably pack as much food in the car as I possibly
we can, um just in case we get stranded somewhere and some blankets.
So mostly survival things, not any, there's probably nothing else in the house that Ican't replace that's worth grabbing in 10 minutes.
(03:09):
I think besides a pet and a significant other, everything else I have is on the cloud.
So I could get another laptop and I've got, I don't know, 14, 15,000 pictures on my phoneand iCloud.
So even if I had to go buy a new phone, I'm good.
I choke, I would go to my friend Rhonda's house.
(03:29):
Okay.
She has got enough to last a year in her freezer in her pantry.
Great food, great cook.
So I would just, you know, probably enough toilet paper to last the zombie apocalypse.
oh Exactly.
those are good friends to have the ones that can cook and then have plenty of stored food.
(03:50):
And hopefully she and her wife would be in Florida, so the house would be empty.
I could just go in myself.
So um let's talk about your background, how you got in hospitality, sort of your roots.
Yeah, I started, I was fortunate enough to get my first job as a line cook at 15 from asmall town in Missouri and got a job at my family's favorite Mexican restaurant, which is
(04:19):
still my favorite restaurant to this day.
It's called Barbosa's.
um from, um yeah, that's okay, St.
Joseph, right?
Just an hour north of Kansas City.
Are you familiar?
no, but there was a girl I went to college with.
Her family was from Kennet, Missouri, and we went up there a few times.
(04:39):
Really nice place and nice family.
Yeah, very simple way of life, very green.
um So yeah, that was my first job.
um I ended up moving from Missouri to Colorado when I graduated from high school and got ajob.
This was 1999.
uh Got a job at Outback Steakhouse, my first serving and bartending job.
(05:01):
And I absolutely fell in love with um serving, bartending, the training, the systems.
I was a very shy girl, you know, from small town Midwest.
So.
the industry, I really give it a lot of praise for helping this introvert come out andbecome an extrovert.
(05:23):
I really learned all about teamwork and what to do and what not to do.
made all the classic mistakes I think you do when you're first in the industry, partyingtoo much and all those good things.
ah But the money was amazing and it was super fun.
It was dinner only, which was great.
I did that for about a year and a half and then I wandered up the street one day to a fivestar five diamond resort because I heard they were having a job fair and I was curious
(05:48):
about what that, what five star five diamond service meant and that hotel is called theBroadmoor, it's in Colorado Springs, it's absolutely gorgeous and.
Yeah, if you ever get a chance, would highly recommend it.
is just it's built in 1918.
I could tell you the whole story from the hotel, but I ended up working there for fiveyears and uh cut my chops in management there and ended up opening a couple concepts with
(06:13):
the hotel.
One was fine dining French.
I was lucky enough to work for my mentor, one of my mentors who worked for Danny Meyer inNew York.
And we for one of the fine dining restaurant that we opened, we hired a couple of master
from New York for a year to help us curate this beautifully crafted cocktail program.
(06:33):
So that was great exposure.
I was studying to become a sommelier with the hotel as well and just had this amazing, youknow, GM.
And we had a Michelin star chef behind the kitchen helm and it was just, it was justmagical.
was, I was 24 years old learning about duck confit and hanger steak and also buko andpairing it with wines from all over the world.
(06:55):
And it was just, just absolutely.
eye-opening experience for somebody from a small town.
anyway, I did that for about five years, ended up moving up to Denver.
uh opened a really high volume Italian concept right in the heart of downtown Denver andLarimer Square.
And it was wildly successful.
(07:16):
uh 600 covers a night, just turn and burn.
Incredible, incredible opening staff.
And uh that was owned by a husband and chef team, or husband and wife chef team, and theywanted to expand.
They'd already had two additional locations, one fine dining French, one fine diningItalian.
and they wanted to continue to open as many restaurants as they could.
(07:38):
I became a business partner with them and kind of wore all the hats of training and peopledevelopment and opening new concepts, running Cat5 cable through the ceilings to get ready
to program the POS.
ah And we ended up opening five different concepts in five years.
And that was just an absolute blast.
We opened a speakeasy, barbecue restaurant, casual French.
(07:59):
It was just, it was awesome.
And then I decided I wanted a little bit of a shift in lifestyle and wanted to see myhusband for dinner.
Which is something I'd never done in my career.
sitting in the bar?
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
So I jumped on with uh a high volume brunch concept.
(08:21):
It was locally owned by two brothers.
They had six concepts, or six different locations, excuse me, all the same concept inDenver and one in California.
And um they had big plans to grow on a national level.
So I was with them for seven years and we ended up growing from six to 48 locations allover the US.
um And then I jumped on with an ice cream company during the pandemic, which was just agreat lesson in managing Gen Z, especially during the pandemic.
(08:51):
And it was just a wild, wild, awesome ride.
It's called Sweet Cow Ice Cream, some of the best ice cream you'll find out there.
And then after all that time in the industry and me, I'd gotten to a point where I was nottaking care of myself and I was pretty burnt out and I was not taking care of my physical
or mental health.
I was drinking pretty heavily to cover up the fact that I was really unhappy in what I wasdoing.
(09:15):
And I got my life back in shape, started working with a coach and had an eye-openingmoment that...
I wanted to start my own company, become a restaurant coach, helping support independentoperators, knowing so many of the pain points that I had experienced, uh mainly that there
was a lack of leadership development in the industry.
(09:36):
And so I started my company three years ago, supporting multi-unit independent owners andoperators, and it's been magical.
Yeah.
You know, somebody that doesn't know your journey or doesn't really know the behind thebehind the scenes, like you don't just wake up one day and say, hey, I've been in the
(09:58):
restaurant business my whole life and I've developed these leadership strategies or someof you develop, but we all have mentors, coaches, thought leaders, books that inspire us.
Where does your
sort of like foundational philosophy about leadership and coaching come from?
(10:19):
Like, you know, we're not born with that, right?
We learn from other people.
So who are some of the people you've learned from?
And we put our own spin on it, obviously, but.
yeah, I I was an only child.
I am an only child.
We didn't go out to eat a lot in the Midwest.
We would go to Kansas City and go to steak houses and things like that when I was little.
(10:44):
I think moving to Colorado really started to kind of open my eyes into what the restaurantbusiness really could be and the fact that it was a career.
And so when I shifted my mindset and started thinking, oh my god, this is something that Icould do for the rest of my life.
I really love what I'm doing.
I started looking for those resources and one was, you know, the management trainingprogram that the hotel had, which was brief, but the other one that really shaped so much
(11:11):
of who I am and still how I operate today was Danny Meyer's book, Setting the Table.
I mean, I was lucky enough to be able to, you know, read that book and it really resonatedso much with me and then to be able to work for someone that worked for Danny and see all
of that illustrated in the book come
life in the restaurant and learn about the steps of service and systems and training andreally see hospitality come into play and action like that was was absolutely incredible
(11:39):
and and that book was something that gosh I've probably read it ten times over but Ibought it for every single staff member uh whenever we opened restaurants that that was
our handbook and our playbook uh for opening so
So if somebody hasn't read the book, like myself, what are three big takeaways?
(12:02):
Danny talks a lot about hospitality versus customer service, right?
And hospitality is about the way that you make people feel.
um It's about exceeding expectations for guests, looking for those verbal cues.
He talks about collecting dots of information from people, always looking for ways thatyou can enhance the experience, whether it's reading their body language, overhearing
(12:27):
something, getting some information around their reservation.
um
the way that they are looking at each other, know, a two top at the table.
Are they looking with their eyes down to the table?
Are they looking around?
Just ways that you can identify opportunities to create new experiences and hospitalityfor them.
Even how to see, you where to seat a two top and a four top and just just make theexperience very magical.
(12:50):
So he's um it's really about the little things.
And I feel like a lot of that is is in the majority of the industry is getting lost rightnow with just high turnover.
and um lack of experience in the industry.
And so I think for anyone that hasn't read the book that's listening to this, it'stimeless.
(13:11):
Even if you implemented five things in that book, your restaurant will be better for it.
You know, it makes me think of nature versus nurture.
I can't tell you many times I've been out and I'm like, man, this server is on it.
They can read the room that they're in tune and then other servers, you know, we went outthe other night someplace and I said, look, we're on date night.
(13:34):
We're not in a hurry.
Please bring out everything slow and quick.
There's nothing worse.
You're eating your salad and your steak comes out.
And I swear the salad came out.
And two minutes later, the appetizer came out and I'm just tired.
And I wasn't, you know, if you've been in the industry long enough, it doesn't really evenpay to say something because the manager is gonna come out and comp something.
(13:58):
It's not about comping something.
It's more about, hey, FYI.
So I just let it go to not ruin the evening, but it's just like, and how much do you thinkof that as sort of innate?
a skill versus taught skill.
I think that there is a lack right now of intention in the way that we are choosing thepeople that are working in our restaurants and the way that we are training them and the
(14:29):
way that they are developing them.
think...
you know, pre-pandemic, we had people that had been in the industry for 20 years.
a lot of them looked at it as a career.
And they took a lot of pride in perfecting their craft.
So they kind of taught themselves.
There's a sense of competition, right?
Like, I want to be the best server.
I want to work for the best restaurants in this city.
(14:50):
um I want to make the best guest impression that I can.
And obviously, all of that results in making more money.
So I think.
there were people, the restaurant industry was a little bit more glamorous than I think itis today.
And because it has such a hard reputation, and it is very difficult business, and runninga restaurant's never been more difficult than it is today.
(15:12):
But I think it's putting, or I know it's putting so much more pressure on leadership andtraining.
And so I don't know that it's innate.
think with what's happening with cell phones and tech, and the way that our generation iscoming up, and the way that they're learning things, it's much more digitized than it
is eye contact and human connection.
And those are the things that we really need to teach because that's where hospitalityreally shines.
(15:38):
Do you think AI um is going to change hospitality from a server standpoint?
Because I've heard people talk about they've gone to restaurants where, you know, Rosiethe robot shows up with food on the tray.
What are your thoughts on where all that?
I have my own, but I want to get yours first.
(16:00):
I'm a huge fan of AI.
I use it for every single aspect of my business because it's a strategic partner for me.
I help restaurant owners and operators that I work with use AI assist as a strategicpartner to if a server's listening to this right now and they want to learn how to be
better every single day, they can go home and use AI to recap what happened during thatshift and have it give some tips on how they can show up better and make more money the
(16:25):
next day and engage.
They've got to have that want to desire to
do that and that's who we need to hire for in the industry is curious people and peoplethat are dedicated to constantly learning.
And there's a very specific way I work with people to flesh that out in interviews.
But AI can be such a powerful tool.
I haven't seen the robots yet, I've just seen them on TV.
(16:46):
So it will be interesting to see in real life what happens.
But if people are looking for a very fast, convenient, consistent, efficient experience,
then that probably works for them.
If a guest like me and you that are really passionate about hospitality, if we wanna havea conversation with someone, ah then that's not gonna be an experience that we cater to, I
(17:12):
think.
Yeah, I think in the lower price points, know, you've got to make to anybody in QSR, fastfood, they're going to leverage AI, robotic cooking, know, kiosks, robot handling things.
I think there's still going to be this underlying need that you want personalization andthat human touch.
(17:37):
and they'll pay a premium for it, right?
Because I think it will be a premium and it will be hard to come by.
And it will transcend not only that, healthcare.
Yes, it's nice to nurse.
Robotic nurse can do all these things, but at end of the day, do you want a nursecomforting you when you're sick or dying?
m I think it will automate vehicles, but people will long to drive a car, so they'll go tocar ranches.
(18:07):
there will be these offshoots that sort of take us back to old school.
So it's very interesting to see where it's going.
So you put out your shingle.
uh Did you have a client to spearhead this when you left or did you just say, look, I'mburnt out.
I don't really care.
I'm gonna go do this and I'll figure it out as I go.
(18:29):
Or did you have a cornerstone client to sort of help you transition and.
Move.
Move it.
didn't have a cornerstone client.
I started working with a coach.
I had always been really great at investing in myself.
And then I stopped.
And that's what I think what started to lead to a lot of the burnout.
(18:50):
I started to put that leadership development onus on the company that I was working for.
And I took it off me.
And that was really dangerous.
And so I really work with people now to understand that it's 50-50.
Leadership development is something that you have to work on and your employer should beworking on too.
But I started working with a
and three or four sessions in, I had a huge moment of insight that the one-on-one workthat we were doing in the sessions was my favorite part of what I'd been doing in the
(19:15):
industry for 20 years.
And I said, my god, I can make a career out of this.
And again, get back to something that I absolutely love.
So I started taking coaching courses, and right after my first course, I was in a room,virtually, with 25 people who were coaching people from all different industries, all over
the world.
And I was so inspired that there were a group
(19:37):
of people like that that wanted to make a huge impact in the world.
And so I immediately got off that first call and built my website because I thought thatwas the first thing you needed to do to establish your business.
Haha, you don't.
um And I just started making a list of 300 people that I had worked with in my past 20years and I just started picking up the phone and connecting and saying, what are you
(20:00):
doing?
How are you?
What's going on?
What's your biggest pain point?
And just looking for opportunities where I could serve.
And that's where my first couple clients came from.
And then obviously as you build business over time, things get a little clearer and youbecome a little bit more specialized and specialized.
But I knew I wanted to build a business in restaurants.
I had an extraordinary network of people that I'd worked with before and also somenonprofits that I'd been a part of.
(20:28):
We have a magical nonprofit in Denver called Eat Denver and it's comprised of 450independent restaurant owners and have
been in part of that organization for many, years.
And so the connections were there.
I just needed to learn how to kind of network and reestablish those connections in a newway.
(20:48):
Yeah, you can't underestimate the power of your network for sure.
I taught my son that years ago when he was younger.
He thought if you get good grades and do well in school, that'll get you through life.
And I said, it's really about your Rolodex.
And he never believed me until he sold Cutco one summer and I gave him my Rolodex and hecrushed it.
(21:09):
He would have never gotten anyone to take a phone call if it wasn't, you know, because ofthe connection.
Yeah.
I don't think a lot of those things are really taught to kids these days.
know, you know, in college, I said, you know, I think that the phrase was just around incollege, like, oh, it's about who you know.
And that terrified me and made me mad because I didn't know anyone.
(21:31):
uh I was very shy.
So but it is true.
You know, I have clients that come and work with me now that are in, uh you know, someoneto grow their business, someone to transition out of their current role in order to scale
someone to transition out of the business altogether, you know, and so they start theheadache is I got to build my resume, and then I'm gonna send it out to 100 companies
online.
It's like, no, let's not worry about
(21:52):
any of that.
Let's start with making a list of who you know and start having those conversations.
For sure.
So if somebody listening were to engage with you, like who's your ideal client and whatare your like three superpowers that you could help them with and what might be going
through their head where they go, well, this resonates with me.
(22:13):
I've probably, I've never thought about this.
Maybe I need to thinking about, think about picking up the phone and calling Kristen.
I'll tell you a story.
A client, a potential client called yesterday, they have one very successful restaurant.
husband and wife own the business.
They want to scale to three.
(22:34):
They know that there's cracks in the foundation of their business.
They're both in the executive chef and GM role.
They want to transition out of those roles and develop people to be in those roles so thatthey can truly be owners and less operators.
So that's one example.
I have another group.
(22:55):
Leadership development, yep, organizational design.
So superpowers are, uh we work with multi-unit independent operators and owners to makesure that they've got the right leadership team in place, that there's very clear
expectations for them, and that they are hiring the right people in the organization sothat we can focus on retention.
(23:18):
And.
build plans to nurture and develop those people.
Because what I see that happens a lot in the industry is that independent owners findleaders around them that are loyal to them and then they start creating positions for
them.
And that's very expensive.
So I have a client in town who has two restaurants.
They had eight managers.
(23:40):
They only needed four.
So we did an exercise together and cut out over $100,000 in salaries out of theirbusiness, which they can again then diversify into other areas that they need.
So it's about identifying what roles the business needs first and foremost, and thenfinding people either internally or externally to fill those roles.
(24:04):
Once you've got that stability in place, then your organization can start to thrive.
Any other superpowers or
um I love, uh I mean, the best part of what we do is we give owners the space to slowdown.
(24:29):
And take a pause.
and really think deeply and differently about their business and challenge the way thatthey've been doing things because like I said earlier, this business has never been
harder.
You've got to be an expert these days in marketing and technology and competition.
I enjoyed your last episode on collaboration over competition.
(24:54):
It's so important to be a bigger brand ambassador for your restaurant than you've everbeen before.
we you know the industry needs more diverse restaurant owners and so again giving ownersthat space and time to slow down and really start to get them in the role that they
actually want to play in.
(25:15):
and then figure out how to bring on the teammates that are gonna help them run asuccessful business so they don't have to feel guilty when they walk away from the
business or take days off.
They can go enjoy time with their family.
They don't feel like the business is running them.
They're not getting blown up with 25 text messages an hour with little silly questionsthat the staff should be able to answer on their own.
(25:38):
um We give them that time and space back.
It's really funny you mentioned that when I had my first restaurant, Corky's Barbecuefranchise, I had a pager that ages me.
um And I was like, if you need anything, page me.
And I'd get paged five times a night, like where's the key to the toilet paper holder?
Just bullshit.
(25:59):
And I just threw the pager away and they figured it out without me, right?
And um I've always been sort of lazy.
We call it efficient to sound PC, but lazy.
Um, I've never taken pride in working hard, smart, but I've worked with, and you know,when I say coached, taught restaurants, like, you know, how to get in the catering
(26:22):
business and focus on that.
I find that they, they all.
It's almost like their identity, their significance is how many things they can do in aday and how busy they are.
And you could tell them logically, like, look, you need to hire someone to do this andfocus on that, right?
(26:47):
But it doesn't happen, right?
Because we can have a logical conversation about, hey, you need to watch your health, youneed to stop drinking.
But if you're still going to work every day and you're miserable,
Yes, logically, you connect with what I'm saying and emotionally, you don't.
How do you get your clients over to that side where they get it?
(27:09):
Or are they coming in in enough pain and they're like, look, I'm in enough pain and I needsome fucking help.
Can you know, I'm ready for a change.
Just tell me what to do.
Where is it?
Yeah, no, it's a great point that you bring up because it's a very old school way ofthinking.
We've been wearing this hard work in these 80 hour work weeks and this grit as a badge ofhonor.
(27:31):
You're sick, who cares?
You're showing up to work, right?
Leave your shit at the front door.
You're having a bad day, whatever.
Leave it at the door and come in and do your job.
It doesn't fly anymore.
We're just in a different world.
So typically when owners come to us, they're ready for change.
They know that the way that they are working is not sustainable and they are not
(27:52):
living the life that they want to live and they're fed up with it.
Or they see other people around them doing things differently and they're like, I wantthat.
How do I get that?
know, coaching is not...
they're coming from a position of pain.
How can I avoid this pain?
Yeah, exactly.
(28:12):
They want something different.
They want something better.
They know that they've worked as hard as they can.
They've hit a wall.
And they want more but they don't know how to go get it and they know that wanting moreand you know scaling their business Means them not working harder.
They know that they're going to need to start to put a team in place and So but that'svery very uncomfortable right and that's where growth comes from so that's our job is
(28:40):
working with these owners to get them incredibly uncomfortable and start to Imagine adifferent world where their pain points are gone Their pain points have shifted to much
lesser things
right, like I need to learn more about marketing or strategize more with, you know, or domore one-on-ones or whatever the case is.
they, you know, coaching is not about giving people the answers.
(29:02):
It's about helping these restaurant owners tap into the tools and the resources that theyalready have.
They know their business better than anybody.
but we're there to challenge what's happening, celebrate the moments and the wins that arehappening because a lot of times there's a lot of great things happening but they're just
not giving themselves the time and space to recognize it.
(29:25):
And then we challenge them to think really differently and we hold up a mirror for themand say, this is what you're saying right now, this is how you're showing up, this is how
you're operating.
And sometimes just that can be enough for them to realize, that's not who I wanna be.
Yeah.
And sometimes it takes a life heart attack or some major life event, a wife leaving youbecause it's like, it's enough.
(29:50):
You mentioned alcohol, um drinking too much.
I've got a friend and he sort of works in that space with entrepreneurs.
Do you find as a percentage more your clients are maybe uh self-soothing through
drugs, alcohol, something else to mask the pain, the pressure.
(30:17):
you see that a lot in here?
don't from the business perspective.
Now I am a part of a nonprofit called Chow, which is, um we offer mental health andsubstance abuse resources to people in the industry.
And that's a very confidential organization.
That's a wonderful outlet for people to go get help.
(30:39):
What's that?
What?
know Bob.
No.
oh
I tend to see people, a lot of the clients that I work with, they are working too hard andthey're not prioritizing self-care.
So they're letting their schedule completely run them ragged.
I just had this conversation with a client yesterday.
She's like, I know I can be better for my team and I want to lead by example and tell themto take care of themselves and show them how to take care of themselves, but I'm not
(31:07):
taking care of myself first.
and it's just about creating a routine, right?
So it's more of that is what I see, it's just the constant work and constant bog down.
They may be self-soothing um and not ready to talk about it yet, right?
And so I've, you know.
I've gone through that work, I've lost a marriage because of that work or lack thereof.
(31:32):
You've gotta do it when you're ready to do it and help comes in so many different formsand shapes for people.
So, yeah.
It makes sense.
So when you're working with these clients and organizations, what do you see as thebiggest roadblock to the breakthrough, right?
(31:54):
And how do you get them past it?
Because obviously, you want to see that result.
It's not just about, hey, I've come in here and done this and I leave and then whatever.
It's more than the paycheck.
It's the satisfaction of you help somebody.
Totally.
a really bonus on all this.
The biggest thing that I see is that restaurant owners just need to get out of their ownfucking way.
(32:18):
They've got all the knowledge of all the years that they've been in operation and theyneed to figure out how to get it out of their head, distill it down onto paper or into
tech or teach it to their teams so that they can get comfortable enough walking away fromthe business.
Because once they start doing that and their team starts to feel empowered and have buyingand starts performing better, then the pain point shifts to, well,
(32:44):
they don't need me as much anymore.
So now what am I going to go do?
Right?
So we try to get ahead of all of that.
But that's a different, that's a different pain point that shows up.
But do you have a technique that you employ to help them get over that edge?
Or is it just constant reinforcement or is it visualization or?
Yeah, there's a lot of tools in the toolkit, but our process is we create a vision forwhere the owner wants to go uh personally and professionally.
(33:12):
We create a roadmap with them on how to get there, and then we start to remove thoseroadblocks.
Because a lot of times, the owners know what the roadblocks are.
but oftentimes they don't either.
And so there's a lot of discovery.
So we work with people for 12 months or nine months or six months because it takes a lotof time to unpack that.
And then once we start rolling out change in the business, there's a very specific waythat we teach them to roll out successful change so that it's sustainable.
(33:41):
Yeah, I would imagine it's at least a 12 month process to really unwrap everything, getyour head around it and then sort of lay it out and then start working on it because
there's gonna be, I would imagine slips and falls and twists and turns as you go.
Yeah.
(34:01):
in low season, how do you adjust and adapt?
Yeah.
Um, you know, it's, um, it's great that you've identified exactly who you work with.
Um, when I was doing consulting or teaching people, I found the toughest people were thatmom and pop.
had one restaurant they were living.
(34:23):
They were in that really what I call dangerous middle.
They weren't making enough money to say, wow, I'm thriving.
And they weren't.
about to go bankrupt and ready to shut the doors, they were just getting by and it wouldhave been better off if they were either bankrupt and they could start all over or they
were thriving and they had the money and the resources.
(34:45):
I would imagine that there's a base level of success you have to start with.
You know, like I can't say, okay, I want to get out of day to day if I can't afford tohire a general manager, right?
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, I mean, it's, again, it's about building a vision.
If you want your operation to be doing $3 million in sales a year, because that's going toopen up doors for you to be able to hire the team that you want and get yourself out of
(35:10):
day to day, then we go get the 3 million.
Yeah.
So, um, it's funny you mentioned that because, um, catering was that tool for me.
Like I knew I did not want to be working nights and weekends and holidays.
I'd rather focus on growing catering sales, sales marketing strategy.
(35:33):
And I did this personally as you start growing catering and those extra profits we couldafford an operating partner.
to take care of the day-to-day stuff.
And I've told other clients that and some do it, some don't, but it's definitely a greatvehicle if you're sitting there and you're wondering, okay, how can I generate another
50,000 in profit so I can take all this stuff off my plate, enjoy my life and enjoy mybusiness again and focus on the things I enjoy doing and let other people do the things
(36:03):
they're good at.
Absolutely, it's so important.
mean, there's catering can be such a powerful arm of your business, right?
There's a group in town that does a million dollars in sales and catering and it takes somuch of that pressure off dine-in, which we know, you know, in Denver, guest traffic is
down, sales are down 20%, it's a very competitive market.
so catering is such a wonderful way to build predictability into a really unpredictableindustry.
(36:32):
for sure.
Now, before we jumped on this call, you said you'd worked with a brand and they usecatering as a growth vehicle.
I don't know if you want to tell any stories around that.
ah
So I worked with Snooze for seven years.
That's the company I was mentioning that grew from six to 48 restaurants.
(36:52):
That was the first time that I had worked with a restaurant that had catering, that everdid catering.
And we did it really well.
We had a beautiful pitch deck.
of all of our offerings.
They were very consistent.
Now again, we had 48 locations, right, and of all the same concept.
(37:13):
But the quality of the pitch deck was really, really great.
The food photos were really high quality.
um We had different packages based on the groups of people.
The presentation was consistent in every single location because we had specs for that.
We had um beautiful branded boxes that everything would come in.
(37:35):
if you
getting out of your car and you're walking across the street you could see a snoozecatering box or ten of them crossing the street and it would be eye-catching and go what
you know somebody would say what's that uh we were great at going to um you know communitybusinesses around the area and dropping off pancakes to people whether it was off people
(37:57):
that managed apartment buildings hotel concierges uh
other businesses in the area that we knew, we were constantly giving out food as a gestureof hospitality.
Of hey, do you know that we do private events and do you know that we do catering?
We would love to host your next event.
(38:18):
ah We also were really good at following up with every single person that booked with usto make sure that they had a great experience and we would take that feedback and
celebrate it with the team or make adjustments when we needed to.
We were also really good at nurturing those people.
So if they booked with us a year ago, when nine months came up, we were reaching back outto them saying, hey, we hosted an event or we did catering for your holiday office party
(38:42):
last year.
We'd love to host you again.
We took that pressure off of.
the office manager that's planning all of that and making sure that we can make thatprocess really easy for them and offer that hospitality to them.
Yeah.
a lot of those tools built into our software.
whether you do it manually or you do it semi-automatically, it's just good common sense umsales and marketing.
(39:09):
um And we're sort of wrapping up.
If somebody wants to work with you, what's the best way to reach out to you, engage withyou, if you want to give out contact and also again, maybe state who's your ideal
prospect.
you know, the chore.
absolutely.
Independent restaurant owners that have two locations or more.
(39:30):
I work with people all over the world.
uh So if you'd like to get a hold of me, one thing, a lot of what I talked about in theconversation today is available in my book called Multi Unit Mastery, which can be found
on Amazon.
uh
shoulder.
Over my shoulder, yeah, for anybody that's watching.
um And then if you would like to talk about, you know, working together, what that wouldlook like, I would be happy, more than happy, anybody that's listening to this call to
(39:57):
gift you a coaching session.
And let's spend 30 to 40 minutes just strategizing where you're at in your business andwhat the business needs.
And if you'd like to schedule that, just visit KristenMarvin.com slash contact, and we'llfind some time together on the calendar.
And Kristen is C-H-R-I-S-T-I-N.
(40:19):
Not Christian and not Kristen with a K.
no A, there's no K, and there's no E.
Yeah, well, try explaining a T as to someone.
It's been a pleasure.
Thanks for sharing.
know, normally we talk nuts and bolts about catering, but it's all interrelated.
Anything that needs your business and your lifestyle and the quality and, know, I thinkit's, I forgot who it was that said this.
(40:48):
I'm just sort of going dead, but.
You know, most people own a job, they don't own a business.
And it sounds like you help your clients go from job owners to business owners, which is adifferent, totally different world.
Yeah, absolutely.
mean, you know, restaurant owners get into the business because they're very passionateabout it.
They love it.
You know, they're not looking to, most of them aren't looking to grow something as fast asthey can and then sell it off.
(41:11):
You know, they're in it.
They want this to be their legacy.
And so we really help them create the legacy that they want to see.
Yeah.
Thanks, you too, Michael.
Hello again, I'm Michael Attias, your host of Restaurant Catering Smarts and today's guestis Kristen Marvin, founder and CEO of Solutions by Kristen.
With more than two decades in the hospitality industry from line cook to multi-unitoperations.
Kristen has become a trusted leadership coach, author and speaker for independentrestaurant owners.
(00:52):
At the helm of Solutions by Kristen, she partners with restaurant leaders to tackle theirtoughest challenges, preventing burnout, increasing retention, strengthening leadership
teams, and building sustainable, thriving businesses.
Kristen brings a unique blend of hands-on restaurant experience and coaching insights intohelping restaurateurs level up their leadership, their culture, and their bottom line.
(01:14):
And we're excited to have her on the show today.
But before we get started, let's take a minute to recognize our sponsor, CaterZen CateringSoftware.
They help restaurants turn their catering chaos into calm.
Discover why restaurants trust CaterZen to save them time and increase sales.
Go to caterzen.com and sign up for a free walkthrough of their software.
Now let's dive into this episode.
(01:36):
Welcome, Kristen, how are you doing today?
I'm great, how are you?
Michael, thanks so much for having me.
thanks for being here.
I appreciate it.
Not my normal backdrop.
I'm in Michigan today.
I sort of record this from wherever I am, sort of leading the nomadic or semi-nomadiclifestyle.
So uh one of the first things I love to do is sort of an icebreaker question.
(02:01):
So if you give me a number between one and 300, we'll pull one up.
I'll go 28, which is my birthday.
Okay.
Your home is about to be hit by a tornado.
You have 10 minutes to grab a few things and get out.
(02:23):
What would you take?
That's a great question.
I have to take my two doodles.
uh are Chef and Madeline.
They are my squad, my homies.
I would take, it's probably what a lot of people would say, but I would take what photos Icould.
Luckily now most of that is digitized and could take with me.
(02:45):
So definitely need my phone or my computer.
So I've got all my memories there.
And I would probably pack as much food in the car as I possibly
we can, um just in case we get stranded somewhere and some blankets.
So mostly survival things, not any, there's probably nothing else in the house that Ican't replace that's worth grabbing in 10 minutes.
(03:09):
I think besides a pet and a significant other, everything else I have is on the cloud.
So I could get another laptop and I've got, I don't know, 14, 15,000 pictures on my phoneand iCloud.
So even if I had to go buy a new phone, I'm good.
I choke, I would go to my friend Rhonda's house.
(03:29):
Okay.
She has got enough to last a year in her freezer in her pantry.
Great food, great cook.
So I would just, you know, probably enough toilet paper to last the zombie apocalypse.
oh Exactly.
those are good friends to have the ones that can cook and then have plenty of stored food.
(03:50):
And hopefully she and her wife would be in Florida, so the house would be empty.
I could just go in myself.
So um let's talk about your background, how you got in hospitality, sort of your roots.
Yeah, I started, I was fortunate enough to get my first job as a line cook at 15 from asmall town in Missouri and got a job at my family's favorite Mexican restaurant, which is
(04:19):
still my favorite restaurant to this day.
It's called Barbosa's.
um from, um yeah, that's okay, St.
Joseph, right?
Just an hour north of Kansas City.
Are you familiar?
no, but there was a girl I went to college with.
Her family was from Kennet, Missouri, and we went up there a few times.
(04:39):
Really nice place and nice family.
Yeah, very simple way of life, very green.
um So yeah, that was my first job.
um I ended up moving from Missouri to Colorado when I graduated from high school and got ajob.
This was 1999.
uh Got a job at Outback Steakhouse, my first serving and bartending job.
(05:01):
And I absolutely fell in love with um serving, bartending, the training, the systems.
I was a very shy girl, you know, from small town Midwest.
So.
the industry, I really give it a lot of praise for helping this introvert come out andbecome an extrovert.
(05:23):
I really learned all about teamwork and what to do and what not to do.
made all the classic mistakes I think you do when you're first in the industry, partyingtoo much and all those good things.
ah But the money was amazing and it was super fun.
It was dinner only, which was great.
I did that for about a year and a half and then I wandered up the street one day to a fivestar five diamond resort because I heard they were having a job fair and I was curious
(05:48):
about what that, what five star five diamond service meant and that hotel is called theBroadmoor, it's in Colorado Springs, it's absolutely gorgeous and.
Yeah, if you ever get a chance, would highly recommend it.
is just it's built in 1918.
I could tell you the whole story from the hotel, but I ended up working there for fiveyears and uh cut my chops in management there and ended up opening a couple concepts with
(06:13):
the hotel.
One was fine dining French.
I was lucky enough to work for my mentor, one of my mentors who worked for Danny Meyer inNew York.
And we for one of the fine dining restaurant that we opened, we hired a couple of master
from New York for a year to help us curate this beautifully crafted cocktail program.
(06:33):
So that was great exposure.
I was studying to become a sommelier with the hotel as well and just had this amazing, youknow, GM.
And we had a Michelin star chef behind the kitchen helm and it was just, it was justmagical.
was, I was 24 years old learning about duck confit and hanger steak and also buko andpairing it with wines from all over the world.
(06:55):
And it was just, just absolutely.
eye-opening experience for somebody from a small town.
anyway, I did that for about five years, ended up moving up to Denver.
uh opened a really high volume Italian concept right in the heart of downtown Denver andLarimer Square.
And it was wildly successful.
(07:16):
uh 600 covers a night, just turn and burn.
Incredible, incredible opening staff.
And uh that was owned by a husband and chef team, or husband and wife chef team, and theywanted to expand.
They'd already had two additional locations, one fine dining French, one fine diningItalian.
and they wanted to continue to open as many restaurants as they could.
(07:38):
I became a business partner with them and kind of wore all the hats of training and peopledevelopment and opening new concepts, running Cat5 cable through the ceilings to get ready
to program the POS.
ah And we ended up opening five different concepts in five years.
And that was just an absolute blast.
We opened a speakeasy, barbecue restaurant, casual French.
(07:59):
It was just, it was awesome.
And then I decided I wanted a little bit of a shift in lifestyle and wanted to see myhusband for dinner.
Which is something I'd never done in my career.
sitting in the bar?
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
So I jumped on with uh a high volume brunch concept.
(08:21):
It was locally owned by two brothers.
They had six concepts, or six different locations, excuse me, all the same concept inDenver and one in California.
And um they had big plans to grow on a national level.
So I was with them for seven years and we ended up growing from six to 48 locations allover the US.
um And then I jumped on with an ice cream company during the pandemic, which was just agreat lesson in managing Gen Z, especially during the pandemic.
(08:51):
And it was just a wild, wild, awesome ride.
It's called Sweet Cow Ice Cream, some of the best ice cream you'll find out there.
And then after all that time in the industry and me, I'd gotten to a point where I was nottaking care of myself and I was pretty burnt out and I was not taking care of my physical
or mental health.
I was drinking pretty heavily to cover up the fact that I was really unhappy in what I wasdoing.
(09:15):
And I got my life back in shape, started working with a coach and had an eye-openingmoment that...
I wanted to start my own company, become a restaurant coach, helping support independentoperators, knowing so many of the pain points that I had experienced, uh mainly that there
was a lack of leadership development in the industry.
(09:36):
And so I started my company three years ago, supporting multi-unit independent owners andoperators, and it's been magical.
Yeah.
You know, somebody that doesn't know your journey or doesn't really know the behind thebehind the scenes, like you don't just wake up one day and say, hey, I've been in the
(09:58):
restaurant business my whole life and I've developed these leadership strategies or someof you develop, but we all have mentors, coaches, thought leaders, books that inspire us.
Where does your
sort of like foundational philosophy about leadership and coaching come from?
(10:19):
Like, you know, we're not born with that, right?
We learn from other people.
So who are some of the people you've learned from?
And we put our own spin on it, obviously, but.
yeah, I I was an only child.
I am an only child.
We didn't go out to eat a lot in the Midwest.
We would go to Kansas City and go to steak houses and things like that when I was little.
(10:44):
I think moving to Colorado really started to kind of open my eyes into what the restaurantbusiness really could be and the fact that it was a career.
And so when I shifted my mindset and started thinking, oh my god, this is something that Icould do for the rest of my life.
I really love what I'm doing.
I started looking for those resources and one was, you know, the management trainingprogram that the hotel had, which was brief, but the other one that really shaped so much
(11:11):
of who I am and still how I operate today was Danny Meyer's book, Setting the Table.
I mean, I was lucky enough to be able to, you know, read that book and it really resonatedso much with me and then to be able to work for someone that worked for Danny and see all
of that illustrated in the book come
life in the restaurant and learn about the steps of service and systems and training andreally see hospitality come into play and action like that was was absolutely incredible
(11:39):
and and that book was something that gosh I've probably read it ten times over but Ibought it for every single staff member uh whenever we opened restaurants that that was
our handbook and our playbook uh for opening so
So if somebody hasn't read the book, like myself, what are three big takeaways?
(12:02):
Danny talks a lot about hospitality versus customer service, right?
And hospitality is about the way that you make people feel.
um It's about exceeding expectations for guests, looking for those verbal cues.
He talks about collecting dots of information from people, always looking for ways thatyou can enhance the experience, whether it's reading their body language, overhearing
(12:27):
something, getting some information around their reservation.
um
the way that they are looking at each other, know, a two top at the table.
Are they looking with their eyes down to the table?
Are they looking around?
Just ways that you can identify opportunities to create new experiences and hospitalityfor them.
Even how to see, you where to seat a two top and a four top and just just make theexperience very magical.
(12:50):
So he's um it's really about the little things.
And I feel like a lot of that is is in the majority of the industry is getting lost rightnow with just high turnover.
and um lack of experience in the industry.
And so I think for anyone that hasn't read the book that's listening to this, it'stimeless.
(13:11):
Even if you implemented five things in that book, your restaurant will be better for it.
You know, it makes me think of nature versus nurture.
I can't tell you many times I've been out and I'm like, man, this server is on it.
They can read the room that they're in tune and then other servers, you know, we went outthe other night someplace and I said, look, we're on date night.
(13:34):
We're not in a hurry.
Please bring out everything slow and quick.
There's nothing worse.
You're eating your salad and your steak comes out.
And I swear the salad came out.
And two minutes later, the appetizer came out and I'm just tired.
And I wasn't, you know, if you've been in the industry long enough, it doesn't really evenpay to say something because the manager is gonna come out and comp something.
(13:58):
It's not about comping something.
It's more about, hey, FYI.
So I just let it go to not ruin the evening, but it's just like, and how much do you thinkof that as sort of innate?
a skill versus taught skill.
I think that there is a lack right now of intention in the way that we are choosing thepeople that are working in our restaurants and the way that we are training them and the
(14:29):
way that they are developing them.
think...
you know, pre-pandemic, we had people that had been in the industry for 20 years.
a lot of them looked at it as a career.
And they took a lot of pride in perfecting their craft.
So they kind of taught themselves.
There's a sense of competition, right?
Like, I want to be the best server.
I want to work for the best restaurants in this city.
(14:50):
um I want to make the best guest impression that I can.
And obviously, all of that results in making more money.
So I think.
there were people, the restaurant industry was a little bit more glamorous than I think itis today.
And because it has such a hard reputation, and it is very difficult business, and runninga restaurant's never been more difficult than it is today.
(15:12):
But I think it's putting, or I know it's putting so much more pressure on leadership andtraining.
And so I don't know that it's innate.
think with what's happening with cell phones and tech, and the way that our generation iscoming up, and the way that they're learning things, it's much more digitized than it
is eye contact and human connection.
And those are the things that we really need to teach because that's where hospitalityreally shines.
(15:38):
Do you think AI um is going to change hospitality from a server standpoint?
Because I've heard people talk about they've gone to restaurants where, you know, Rosiethe robot shows up with food on the tray.
What are your thoughts on where all that?
I have my own, but I want to get yours first.
(16:00):
I'm a huge fan of AI.
I use it for every single aspect of my business because it's a strategic partner for me.
I help restaurant owners and operators that I work with use AI assist as a strategicpartner to if a server's listening to this right now and they want to learn how to be
better every single day, they can go home and use AI to recap what happened during thatshift and have it give some tips on how they can show up better and make more money the
(16:25):
next day and engage.
They've got to have that want to desire to
do that and that's who we need to hire for in the industry is curious people and peoplethat are dedicated to constantly learning.
And there's a very specific way I work with people to flesh that out in interviews.
But AI can be such a powerful tool.
I haven't seen the robots yet, I've just seen them on TV.
(16:46):
So it will be interesting to see in real life what happens.
But if people are looking for a very fast, convenient, consistent, efficient experience,
then that probably works for them.
If a guest like me and you that are really passionate about hospitality, if we wanna havea conversation with someone, ah then that's not gonna be an experience that we cater to, I
(17:12):
think.
Yeah, I think in the lower price points, know, you've got to make to anybody in QSR, fastfood, they're going to leverage AI, robotic cooking, know, kiosks, robot handling things.
I think there's still going to be this underlying need that you want personalization andthat human touch.
(17:37):
and they'll pay a premium for it, right?
Because I think it will be a premium and it will be hard to come by.
And it will transcend not only that, healthcare.
Yes, it's nice to nurse.
Robotic nurse can do all these things, but at end of the day, do you want a nursecomforting you when you're sick or dying?
m I think it will automate vehicles, but people will long to drive a car, so they'll go tocar ranches.
(18:07):
there will be these offshoots that sort of take us back to old school.
So it's very interesting to see where it's going.
So you put out your shingle.
uh Did you have a client to spearhead this when you left or did you just say, look, I'mburnt out.
I don't really care.
I'm gonna go do this and I'll figure it out as I go.
(18:29):
Or did you have a cornerstone client to sort of help you transition and.
Move.
Move it.
didn't have a cornerstone client.
I started working with a coach.
I had always been really great at investing in myself.
And then I stopped.
And that's what I think what started to lead to a lot of the burnout.
(18:50):
I started to put that leadership development onus on the company that I was working for.
And I took it off me.
And that was really dangerous.
And so I really work with people now to understand that it's 50-50.
Leadership development is something that you have to work on and your employer should beworking on too.
But I started working with a
and three or four sessions in, I had a huge moment of insight that the one-on-one workthat we were doing in the sessions was my favorite part of what I'd been doing in the
(19:15):
industry for 20 years.
And I said, my god, I can make a career out of this.
And again, get back to something that I absolutely love.
So I started taking coaching courses, and right after my first course, I was in a room,virtually, with 25 people who were coaching people from all different industries, all over
the world.
And I was so inspired that there were a group
(19:37):
of people like that that wanted to make a huge impact in the world.
And so I immediately got off that first call and built my website because I thought thatwas the first thing you needed to do to establish your business.
Haha, you don't.
um And I just started making a list of 300 people that I had worked with in my past 20years and I just started picking up the phone and connecting and saying, what are you
(20:00):
doing?
How are you?
What's going on?
What's your biggest pain point?
And just looking for opportunities where I could serve.
And that's where my first couple clients came from.
And then obviously as you build business over time, things get a little clearer and youbecome a little bit more specialized and specialized.
But I knew I wanted to build a business in restaurants.
I had an extraordinary network of people that I'd worked with before and also somenonprofits that I'd been a part of.
(20:28):
We have a magical nonprofit in Denver called Eat Denver and it's comprised of 450independent restaurant owners and have
been in part of that organization for many, years.
And so the connections were there.
I just needed to learn how to kind of network and reestablish those connections in a newway.
(20:48):
Yeah, you can't underestimate the power of your network for sure.
I taught my son that years ago when he was younger.
He thought if you get good grades and do well in school, that'll get you through life.
And I said, it's really about your Rolodex.
And he never believed me until he sold Cutco one summer and I gave him my Rolodex and hecrushed it.
(21:09):
He would have never gotten anyone to take a phone call if it wasn't, you know, because ofthe connection.
Yeah.
I don't think a lot of those things are really taught to kids these days.
know, you know, in college, I said, you know, I think that the phrase was just around incollege, like, oh, it's about who you know.
And that terrified me and made me mad because I didn't know anyone.
(21:31):
uh I was very shy.
So but it is true.
You know, I have clients that come and work with me now that are in, uh you know, someoneto grow their business, someone to transition out of their current role in order to scale
someone to transition out of the business altogether, you know, and so they start theheadache is I got to build my resume, and then I'm gonna send it out to 100 companies
online.
It's like, no, let's not worry about
(21:52):
any of that.
Let's start with making a list of who you know and start having those conversations.
For sure.
So if somebody listening were to engage with you, like who's your ideal client and whatare your like three superpowers that you could help them with and what might be going
through their head where they go, well, this resonates with me.
(22:13):
I've probably, I've never thought about this.
Maybe I need to thinking about, think about picking up the phone and calling Kristen.
I'll tell you a story.
A client, a potential client called yesterday, they have one very successful restaurant.
husband and wife own the business.
They want to scale to three.
(22:34):
They know that there's cracks in the foundation of their business.
They're both in the executive chef and GM role.
They want to transition out of those roles and develop people to be in those roles so thatthey can truly be owners and less operators.
So that's one example.
I have another group.
(22:55):
Leadership development, yep, organizational design.
So superpowers are, uh we work with multi-unit independent operators and owners to makesure that they've got the right leadership team in place, that there's very clear
expectations for them, and that they are hiring the right people in the organization sothat we can focus on retention.
(23:18):
And.
build plans to nurture and develop those people.
Because what I see that happens a lot in the industry is that independent owners findleaders around them that are loyal to them and then they start creating positions for
them.
And that's very expensive.
So I have a client in town who has two restaurants.
They had eight managers.
(23:40):
They only needed four.
So we did an exercise together and cut out over $100,000 in salaries out of theirbusiness, which they can again then diversify into other areas that they need.
So it's about identifying what roles the business needs first and foremost, and thenfinding people either internally or externally to fill those roles.
(24:04):
Once you've got that stability in place, then your organization can start to thrive.
Any other superpowers or
um I love, uh I mean, the best part of what we do is we give owners the space to slowdown.
(24:29):
And take a pause.
and really think deeply and differently about their business and challenge the way thatthey've been doing things because like I said earlier, this business has never been
harder.
You've got to be an expert these days in marketing and technology and competition.
I enjoyed your last episode on collaboration over competition.
(24:54):
It's so important to be a bigger brand ambassador for your restaurant than you've everbeen before.
we you know the industry needs more diverse restaurant owners and so again giving ownersthat space and time to slow down and really start to get them in the role that they
actually want to play in.
(25:15):
and then figure out how to bring on the teammates that are gonna help them run asuccessful business so they don't have to feel guilty when they walk away from the
business or take days off.
They can go enjoy time with their family.
They don't feel like the business is running them.
They're not getting blown up with 25 text messages an hour with little silly questionsthat the staff should be able to answer on their own.
(25:38):
um We give them that time and space back.
It's really funny you mentioned that when I had my first restaurant, Corky's Barbecuefranchise, I had a pager that ages me.
um And I was like, if you need anything, page me.
And I'd get paged five times a night, like where's the key to the toilet paper holder?
Just bullshit.
(25:59):
And I just threw the pager away and they figured it out without me, right?
And um I've always been sort of lazy.
We call it efficient to sound PC, but lazy.
Um, I've never taken pride in working hard, smart, but I've worked with, and you know,when I say coached, taught restaurants, like, you know, how to get in the catering
(26:22):
business and focus on that.
I find that they, they all.
It's almost like their identity, their significance is how many things they can do in aday and how busy they are.
And you could tell them logically, like, look, you need to hire someone to do this andfocus on that, right?
(26:47):
But it doesn't happen, right?
Because we can have a logical conversation about, hey, you need to watch your health, youneed to stop drinking.
But if you're still going to work every day and you're miserable,
Yes, logically, you connect with what I'm saying and emotionally, you don't.
How do you get your clients over to that side where they get it?
(27:09):
Or are they coming in in enough pain and they're like, look, I'm in enough pain and I needsome fucking help.
Can you know, I'm ready for a change.
Just tell me what to do.
Where is it?
Yeah, no, it's a great point that you bring up because it's a very old school way ofthinking.
We've been wearing this hard work in these 80 hour work weeks and this grit as a badge ofhonor.
(27:31):
You're sick, who cares?
You're showing up to work, right?
Leave your shit at the front door.
You're having a bad day, whatever.
Leave it at the door and come in and do your job.
It doesn't fly anymore.
We're just in a different world.
So typically when owners come to us, they're ready for change.
They know that the way that they are working is not sustainable and they are not
(27:52):
living the life that they want to live and they're fed up with it.
Or they see other people around them doing things differently and they're like, I wantthat.
How do I get that?
know, coaching is not...
they're coming from a position of pain.
How can I avoid this pain?
Yeah, exactly.
(28:12):
They want something different.
They want something better.
They know that they've worked as hard as they can.
They've hit a wall.
And they want more but they don't know how to go get it and they know that wanting moreand you know scaling their business Means them not working harder.
They know that they're going to need to start to put a team in place and So but that'svery very uncomfortable right and that's where growth comes from so that's our job is
(28:40):
working with these owners to get them incredibly uncomfortable and start to Imagine adifferent world where their pain points are gone Their pain points have shifted to much
lesser things
right, like I need to learn more about marketing or strategize more with, you know, or domore one-on-ones or whatever the case is.
they, you know, coaching is not about giving people the answers.
(29:02):
It's about helping these restaurant owners tap into the tools and the resources that theyalready have.
They know their business better than anybody.
but we're there to challenge what's happening, celebrate the moments and the wins that arehappening because a lot of times there's a lot of great things happening but they're just
not giving themselves the time and space to recognize it.
(29:25):
And then we challenge them to think really differently and we hold up a mirror for themand say, this is what you're saying right now, this is how you're showing up, this is how
you're operating.
And sometimes just that can be enough for them to realize, that's not who I wanna be.
Yeah.
And sometimes it takes a life heart attack or some major life event, a wife leaving youbecause it's like, it's enough.
(29:50):
You mentioned alcohol, um drinking too much.
I've got a friend and he sort of works in that space with entrepreneurs.
Do you find as a percentage more your clients are maybe uh self-soothing through
drugs, alcohol, something else to mask the pain, the pressure.
(30:17):
you see that a lot in here?
don't from the business perspective.
Now I am a part of a nonprofit called Chow, which is, um we offer mental health andsubstance abuse resources to people in the industry.
And that's a very confidential organization.
That's a wonderful outlet for people to go get help.
(30:39):
What's that?
What?
know Bob.
No.
oh
I tend to see people, a lot of the clients that I work with, they are working too hard andthey're not prioritizing self-care.
So they're letting their schedule completely run them ragged.
I just had this conversation with a client yesterday.
She's like, I know I can be better for my team and I want to lead by example and tell themto take care of themselves and show them how to take care of themselves, but I'm not
(31:07):
taking care of myself first.
and it's just about creating a routine, right?
So it's more of that is what I see, it's just the constant work and constant bog down.
They may be self-soothing um and not ready to talk about it yet, right?
And so I've, you know.
I've gone through that work, I've lost a marriage because of that work or lack thereof.
(31:32):
You've gotta do it when you're ready to do it and help comes in so many different formsand shapes for people.
So, yeah.
It makes sense.
So when you're working with these clients and organizations, what do you see as thebiggest roadblock to the breakthrough, right?
(31:54):
And how do you get them past it?
Because obviously, you want to see that result.
It's not just about, hey, I've come in here and done this and I leave and then whatever.
It's more than the paycheck.
It's the satisfaction of you help somebody.
Totally.
a really bonus on all this.
The biggest thing that I see is that restaurant owners just need to get out of their ownfucking way.
(32:18):
They've got all the knowledge of all the years that they've been in operation and theyneed to figure out how to get it out of their head, distill it down onto paper or into
tech or teach it to their teams so that they can get comfortable enough walking away fromthe business.
Because once they start doing that and their team starts to feel empowered and have buyingand starts performing better, then the pain point shifts to, well,
(32:44):
they don't need me as much anymore.
So now what am I going to go do?
Right?
So we try to get ahead of all of that.
But that's a different, that's a different pain point that shows up.
But do you have a technique that you employ to help them get over that edge?
Or is it just constant reinforcement or is it visualization or?
Yeah, there's a lot of tools in the toolkit, but our process is we create a vision forwhere the owner wants to go uh personally and professionally.
(33:12):
We create a roadmap with them on how to get there, and then we start to remove thoseroadblocks.
Because a lot of times, the owners know what the roadblocks are.
but oftentimes they don't either.
And so there's a lot of discovery.
So we work with people for 12 months or nine months or six months because it takes a lotof time to unpack that.
And then once we start rolling out change in the business, there's a very specific waythat we teach them to roll out successful change so that it's sustainable.
(33:41):
Yeah, I would imagine it's at least a 12 month process to really unwrap everything, getyour head around it and then sort of lay it out and then start working on it because
there's gonna be, I would imagine slips and falls and twists and turns as you go.
Yeah.
(34:01):
in low season, how do you adjust and adapt?
Yeah.
Um, you know, it's, um, it's great that you've identified exactly who you work with.
Um, when I was doing consulting or teaching people, I found the toughest people were thatmom and pop.
had one restaurant they were living.
(34:23):
They were in that really what I call dangerous middle.
They weren't making enough money to say, wow, I'm thriving.
And they weren't.
about to go bankrupt and ready to shut the doors, they were just getting by and it wouldhave been better off if they were either bankrupt and they could start all over or they
were thriving and they had the money and the resources.
(34:45):
I would imagine that there's a base level of success you have to start with.
You know, like I can't say, okay, I want to get out of day to day if I can't afford tohire a general manager, right?
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, I mean, it's, again, it's about building a vision.
If you want your operation to be doing $3 million in sales a year, because that's going toopen up doors for you to be able to hire the team that you want and get yourself out of
(35:10):
day to day, then we go get the 3 million.
Yeah.
So, um, it's funny you mentioned that because, um, catering was that tool for me.
Like I knew I did not want to be working nights and weekends and holidays.
I'd rather focus on growing catering sales, sales marketing strategy.
(35:33):
And I did this personally as you start growing catering and those extra profits we couldafford an operating partner.
to take care of the day-to-day stuff.
And I've told other clients that and some do it, some don't, but it's definitely a greatvehicle if you're sitting there and you're wondering, okay, how can I generate another
50,000 in profit so I can take all this stuff off my plate, enjoy my life and enjoy mybusiness again and focus on the things I enjoy doing and let other people do the things
(36:03):
they're good at.
Absolutely, it's so important.
mean, there's catering can be such a powerful arm of your business, right?
There's a group in town that does a million dollars in sales and catering and it takes somuch of that pressure off dine-in, which we know, you know, in Denver, guest traffic is
down, sales are down 20%, it's a very competitive market.
so catering is such a wonderful way to build predictability into a really unpredictableindustry.
(36:32):
for sure.
Now, before we jumped on this call, you said you'd worked with a brand and they usecatering as a growth vehicle.
I don't know if you want to tell any stories around that.
ah
So I worked with Snooze for seven years.
That's the company I was mentioning that grew from six to 48 restaurants.
(36:52):
That was the first time that I had worked with a restaurant that had catering, that everdid catering.
And we did it really well.
We had a beautiful pitch deck.
of all of our offerings.
They were very consistent.
Now again, we had 48 locations, right, and of all the same concept.
(37:13):
But the quality of the pitch deck was really, really great.
The food photos were really high quality.
um We had different packages based on the groups of people.
The presentation was consistent in every single location because we had specs for that.
We had um beautiful branded boxes that everything would come in.
(37:35):
if you
getting out of your car and you're walking across the street you could see a snoozecatering box or ten of them crossing the street and it would be eye-catching and go what
you know somebody would say what's that uh we were great at going to um you know communitybusinesses around the area and dropping off pancakes to people whether it was off people
(37:57):
that managed apartment buildings hotel concierges uh
other businesses in the area that we knew, we were constantly giving out food as a gestureof hospitality.
Of hey, do you know that we do private events and do you know that we do catering?
We would love to host your next event.
(38:18):
ah We also were really good at following up with every single person that booked with usto make sure that they had a great experience and we would take that feedback and
celebrate it with the team or make adjustments when we needed to.
We were also really good at nurturing those people.
So if they booked with us a year ago, when nine months came up, we were reaching back outto them saying, hey, we hosted an event or we did catering for your holiday office party
(38:42):
last year.
We'd love to host you again.
We took that pressure off of.
the office manager that's planning all of that and making sure that we can make thatprocess really easy for them and offer that hospitality to them.
Yeah.
a lot of those tools built into our software.
whether you do it manually or you do it semi-automatically, it's just good common sense umsales and marketing.
(39:09):
um And we're sort of wrapping up.
If somebody wants to work with you, what's the best way to reach out to you, engage withyou, if you want to give out contact and also again, maybe state who's your ideal
prospect.
you know, the chore.
absolutely.
Independent restaurant owners that have two locations or more.
(39:30):
I work with people all over the world.
uh So if you'd like to get a hold of me, one thing, a lot of what I talked about in theconversation today is available in my book called Multi Unit Mastery, which can be found
on Amazon.
uh
shoulder.
Over my shoulder, yeah, for anybody that's watching.
um And then if you would like to talk about, you know, working together, what that wouldlook like, I would be happy, more than happy, anybody that's listening to this call to
(39:57):
gift you a coaching session.
And let's spend 30 to 40 minutes just strategizing where you're at in your business andwhat the business needs.
And if you'd like to schedule that, just visit KristenMarvin.com slash contact, and we'llfind some time together on the calendar.
And Kristen is C-H-R-I-S-T-I-N.
(40:19):
Not Christian and not Kristen with a K.
no A, there's no K, and there's no E.
Yeah, well, try explaining a T as to someone.
It's been a pleasure.
Thanks for sharing.
know, normally we talk nuts and bolts about catering, but it's all interrelated.
Anything that needs your business and your lifestyle and the quality and, know, I thinkit's, I forgot who it was that said this.
(40:48):
I'm just sort of going dead, but.
You know, most people own a job, they don't own a business.
And it sounds like you help your clients go from job owners to business owners, which is adifferent, totally different world.
Yeah, absolutely.
mean, you know, restaurant owners get into the business because they're very passionateabout it.
They love it.
You know, they're not looking to, most of them aren't looking to grow something as fast asthey can and then sell it off.
(41:11):
You know, they're in it.
They want this to be their legacy.
And so we really help them create the legacy that they want to see.
Yeah.
Thanks, you too, Michael.
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