Episode #52 is now Live! Meet John lazarou,  John is one of the founders of the coffee club, which now has over 400 locations world wide.  Johns journey in hospitality started a little different to most successful hospitality operators.  At the age of 15 he left school to take on a hairdressing apprenticeship,  2 years later he quit his job and bought a existing salon, taking two of the seniors at his previous work place while still doing his apprenticeship.  He continued hairdressing for over 10 years, and had a very successful career but one of his biggest mistakes was that he was the face of the salon which put pressure on him to be at the store 7 days a week where he felt trapped.  In 1989 by two of his friends, both named  Emmanuel, were opening a coffee shop called The Coffee Club, and approched him to help out. So he split his time between the salon and The Coffee Club.  It didn’t take long for him to sell his salon and become a partner.  After opening 7 company stores in 5 years, they decided to start franchising with massive success.  They opened over 180 stores before selling 50% of their company to Minor International, one of Thailand's largest resort companies in 2007, they then sold another 20% seven years later, Setting up the original founders for life.  The coffee club started the cafe scene and is one of Australia biggest success stories. I’m very grateful to John for taking the time to chat to me about his journey. One of Johns greatest assets is his ability to make people feel welcome and comfortable and is a massive reason for the success of the coffee club.