Today we are excited to feature our conversation with Jacob Hicks. Jacob is a coach, keynote speaker, and sales expert with over a decade of experience helping individuals and businesses unlock lasting success.
He delivers practical insights and actionable strategies that your listeners can immediately apply in their lives and careers.
Whether it’s building stronger follow-up systems, overcoming challenges with a mindset-driven approach, or implementing sustainable habits for success, Jacob shares engaging stories and proven methods that resonate with audiences across industries.
Some of the amazing topics we got to chat with Jacob about are:
📌 Fearless Selling: Transforming Rejection into Opportunity
📌 Mindset Shifts for Sales Success: Overcoming Fear and Self-Doubt
📌 From Chaos to Clarity: Implementing Systems for Sustainable Growth
📌 The Art of the Follow-Up: How to Build Lasting Client Relationships
📌 Fearless Selling: How to Run Toward Rejection and Turn It Into Success
We know you'll enjoy this conversation! Don't forget to visit Jacob at his website at https://jacobhickscoach.com/ to learn more and you can also download his Entrepreneur’s Sales Toolkit here.
Today, this little podcast is turning 100 episodes old! Thank you all for your support of Cutting Onions over the years. From our little corner of the interweb, we do our best to highlight leaders across all industries who have built amazing people cultures that have fueled organizational success.
We have been so honored to have amazing thought leaders on our podcast who have been so gracious in sharing what they have learned over the years in building companies, scaling culture, and telling the brand story.
On our 100th episode of The Cutting Onions Podcast, we highlight Myles Gift's new role and the impact he has had in the industry over the years. It has been an honor to have Myles next to me on this podcast for the last 4 years.
We also highlight my announcement that dropped this week about my next move, which is why we took so long to drop this episode.
Culture matters, friends. Don't ever forget that.
On today's episode, Episode 99, we’re talking about something rarely celebrated but always essential: consistency, especially when it’s hard. Especially when you’re in the fire.
We all know what the fire is:
• Pressure.
• Repetition.
• Crises.
• Cultural fatigue.
• Emotional burnout.
Today, we share stories and ideas that can help us be more consistent as leaders to be the leaders our teams need.
Call to Action:
Where are you tempted to tap out when you need to lean in?
What would it look like to stay in the fire this week?
Call to Reflection: What’s one consistent behavior you can recommit to?
In today's episode of The Cutting Onions Podcast, we take a look at Texas Roadhouse and their innovative Managing Partner program and how it fuels their results.
We also look at the difference between a traditional GM role and a Managing Partner, and how Texas Roadhouse has built its company on this foundation.
Congratulations to Texas Roadhouse on being named the #1 Casual Dining restaurant in the United States.
Behind the Numbers:
▪ Each Texas Roadhouse averages 5,000 guests a week, which is one of the highest in the industry.
▪ They serve 300,000 meals per day.
▪ The average Texas Roadhouse is 6,700 - 7,500 square feet and seats 291 guests.
▪ Ice-cold draft beer is served at 36-degrees Fahrenheit.
▪ They offer 15 varieties of Legendary Margaritas.
▪ The #1 seller is the 6-ounce USDA Choice Sirloin.
▪ Steaks account for 44% of the menu.
#CuttingOnions #Leadership #Growth #PeopleDevelopment #Managing Partner #TexasRoadhouse #MylesGift #BobbyShaw
In the latest episode of the "Cutting Onions Podcast," Myles and I are excited to present this conversation with William Espey, the brand voice of Chipotle Mexican Grill for almost two decades.
In this conversation, William discusses his early journey with Chipotle, detailing how he transitioned from a non-marketing background to pioneering the brand's creative strategies despite a limited budget and how "The Genius of Naiveté" truly fueled the creativity around the brand.
As the company’s “brand voice” for nearly two decades, William played a crucial role in cultivating Chipotle’s growth from its early entrepreneurial roots to the multi-billion dollar powerhouse it became in the U.S. and Europe.
William has since continued his career in brand strategy, expression, and development, expanding his influence on the branding landscape as a speaker and consultant—with a consistent focus on how to build authentic brands rooted in organizational core values, no matter the industry or the audience.
Today on The Cutting Onions Podcast, Don Champion, Senior Vice President of Sales and Development for Penn Station East Coast Subs joins us. Penn Station has 322 restaurants across 14 states. Don is a seasoned leader in franchising with decades of experience. As a former franchise owner, he brings a unique perspective on developing franchisees through strong relationships and strategic guidance.
Don also believes in the power of culture and the positive impact it can have on the results of an organization, which of course makes us super happy! Culture is one of the big reasons that Don joined Penn Station East Coast Subs.
They also have an unbelievable offer for new franchisees who join Penn Station. 6 months royalty-free and 50% off the franchisee fee.
Don also talks about 4 critical principles that organizations need to embody:
One great lesson Don shared with us, and was a good reminder. Don’t think you have to have all the answers.
#culture #cuttingonions #leadership #PennStationEastCoastSubs #DonChampion #leadership #leadershipdevelopment #mylesgift #bobbyshaw
Welcome to Episode 95 of The Cutting Onions Podcast. On today's episode, we speak with CEO Kristen Pechacek.
Kristen is the President and CEO of MassageLuXe, a franchise surpassing 100 units in 2024. She was recently named as one the Top 50 Game-Changing CMOs in 2023 by Entrepreneur Magazine and Top 50 Era Defining Women to Watch in 2023 by Global Franchise.
Prior to MassageLuXe, Kristen was with Self Esteem Brands as a leader in franchise and consumer marketing for over 5,000 global locations. She has also held roles in the NFL with the Minnesota Vikings and as an adjunct professor of marketing at University of Wisconsin River Falls.
Enjoy our conversation with Kristen and please share it with your network!
Welcome to The Cutting Onions Podcast! This is Episode 94 and Myles and I are excited to feature our conversation with Ingrid Schneider, the founder and CEO of Stay In Your Lane and Train In Your Lane. These two businesses are helping teams in many diverse industries bolster their teams for their next phase of growth.
Ingrid embodies entrepreneurial resilience and bold leadership. Born with a "just get it done" mindset, likely inherited from her serial entrepreneur father, Ingrid's business journey began early. Growing up in her father's Colorado waterbed stores, she was closing sales by age four, rubbing shoulders with Broncos players, and absorbing the entrepreneurial hustle.
Ingrid's entry into franchising led her to create Stay In Your Lane, a company dedicated to transforming good brands into CULT brands by pushing boundaries and fostering a collaborative team environment.
Recognizing the need for modern business solutions, Ingrid founded Train In Your Lane to offer human-based training integrated with AI solutions, gathering exceptional talent to make AI accessible and practical for business professionals. Train In Your Lane helps ordinary people do extraordinary things with AI. We talked for quite some time about some of the tools out there and how they can be harnessed to help businesses create amazing content, and how underutilized these tools are.
Known for her unapologetically bold leadership style, Ingrid champions the idea that women should be free to embrace their natural expressions without judgment. She believes in breaking glass ceilings and being an advocate, builder, creator, expert, and changemaker.
Under Ingrid's leadership, Stay In Your Lane and Train In Your Lane continue to thrive, helping businesses evolve and impacting business innovation.
We learned so much from Ingrid in this episode and are excited to share this conversation with you! Enjoy! #stayinyourlane #traininyourlane #ingridschneider #training #empathy #leadership #cuttingonions #mylesgift #bobbyshaw
For more than 20 years, Jim Taylor has both helped to fuel the growth of a leading national restaurant brand, as well as consulted with hundreds of other restaurants to navigate the ever changing restaurant industry.
Jim recently launched his first book, “Bold Operations - Building the Foundation of Strategic Excellence in Restaurants.” He is also Founder and CEO of Benchmark Sixty Restaurant Services, and has worked alongside small, medium and large restaurant companies in North America and the UK in order to help them better understand their business model, help them to optimize productivity in their business, and to turn data in to profit. Jim is working to change the way that restaurants look at and measure things like employee workload and productivity in order to improve the hospitality industry, it’s margins and retention rates. His encouragement for leaders to “see things differently” has been instrumental in the strategy and execution of several successful businesses.
Everything comes back to people for Jim, and he believes that our industry needs to stick together in order to survive. Through his work with strategic partners, as well as a growing team of consultants his goal is to make the restaurant industry a strongly desired place for people to continue to find both their first job, and their dream job.
Jim is confident that there is a new way forward for the industry, and is on a mission to improve the career experience for the next generation of hospitality professionals. He believes that there are more simple ways to look at the business model, and that by looking through a new lens, industry leaders will be able to more easily attract and retain people, while also making the financial side of the business less stressful.
Bennett Maxwell is a multifaceted entrepreneur renowned for his innovative approach to business and commitment to enhancing the entrepreneurial landscape. He is currently the driving force behind Dirty Dough Cookies, a fast-growing national cookie brand with over 80 stores open and dozens more set to launch this year.
Maxwell’s career spans diverse industries, from real estate in Utah to co-founding and successfully selling Switch to Solar. In addition to his entrepreneurial ventures, he is a sought-after speaker who regularly shares insights with the media.
Bennett also hosts the Deeper Than Dough podcast, launched in 2023, where he explores finding joy and fulfillment in life through entrepreneurship and beyond.
Welcome to The Cutting Onions Podcast. On today’s episode Myles and I welcome Paul Tran back to the podcast for another great conversation around franchising in the restaurant industry. Paul is a great friend to the podcast and we are excited to host him once again.
Paul is a serial entrepreneur and has quite a list of accomplishments he has achieved over the years including:
Today, he:
Paul is currently helping Pepper Lunch grow across the country, and is a multiunit franchisee himself - and building stores in Southern California.
Pepper Lunch is the original DIY Teppanyaki restaurant and aspires to turn ordinary meals into extraordinary experiences by empowering their guests to experience the joy of crafting their unique culinary journeys.
Through a blend of tradition and innovation, Pepper Lunch aims to offer a dining escapade that's as delightful to the senses as it is to the soul, while fostering a community united by the love of flavors.
Enjoy this conversation with Paul Tran! #cuttingonions #pepperlunch #culture #mylesgift #paultran #leadership #franchising #bobbyshaw
Today on The Cutting Onions Podcast we are honored to feature our conversation with Certified Coach and Marketing Expert Jessica Harrison.
Jessica is a certified Executive Coach (ICF-ACC) and consultant focusing on coaching others to find greater balance, navigate transitions and leverage their unique talents. She studied leadership coaching at Brown University's School of Professional Studies. She is also one of my favorite humans on the planet!
Before coaching and consulting, she spent over 12 years in marketing leadership roles with Chipotle (where she and I met) in field marketing, promotions and roll-outs where she was part of the journey with the brand from unknown start-up to household name. Previous brands supported include Red Bull, New Line Cinema, Old Navy and De Beers.
Jessica started Ivy & Scout in 2017, and offers executive, career and college exploration coaching along with strategic marketing consulting for start-ups, consumer product companies, hospitality companies and individuals. Past and current clients supported include Randy’s Donuts, Equip, Steel Series, Yogurtland, LEAP, Noodles & Company, Blaze Pizza, Time Timer, and McCormick & Schmick’s.
We know you are going to love this conversation! Enjoy it wherever you consume your podcast content! #jessicaharrison #ivyandscout #chipotle #localstoremarketing #lsm #marketing #grassroots #burritos #stpatricksdayparade #california #kansascity
On this episode of The Cutting Onions Podcast, we dive into a captivating conversation with Christine Schindler, CEO and Co-Founder of PathSpot. A Duke-alum and Biomedical Engineer, Christine's innovative approach has revolutionized health and safety in the restaurant industry through PathSpot’s HandScanner technology, protecting 1.7 million meals last year alone and boosting handwashing frequency by up to 80% in partner locations.
Under Christine's guidance, PathSpot has forged partnerships globally, ensuring employee and customer safety while enhancing profitability. Beyond her impactful work at PathSpot, she mentors young entrepreneurs with the Clinton Global Initiative and advocates for female empowerment through initiatives like Aunt Flow and Girls Engineering Change.
Christine's contributions have not gone unnoticed, earning her accolades such as Forbes 30 Under 30 and Time Magazine Top Inventions. Her commitment to advancing STEAM fields and creating a safer, more efficient industry exemplifies her dedication to making a difference. Congratulations to Christine on being named a Rising Star in Hospitality Technology Magazine's 2023 Top Women in Restaurant Technology Awards. #WomenInTech #Innovation #Leadership #CuttingOnions #ChristineSchindler #Pathspot #Culture #BobbyShaw #MylesGift
On today's episode of The Cutting Onions Podcast, we talk to entrepreneur and founder, Kevin Cochran for an inspiring conversation on the restaurant industry, technology in restaurants, and his new concept, Jackie Mays Burger.
After ten years of working in restaurants at the beginning of his career, and as the first GM and on the startup team of Freebirds World Burrito, Kevin then gave up the food business over two decades ago for the high-tech world, and worked most recently in clean technology.
Kevin made his return to the restaurant industry in 2020 as founder of Jackie Mays Burger, a 100% plant-based, fast-food franchise concept for consumers desiring healthier and sustainable choices on the go.
In his previous role as Chief Operations Officer for an emerging energy management company, Kevin led programs to track energy and carbon footprints for organizations like HP, Tesla, and the City of Sacramento. Trained in the US and Europe with an MBA and a certification in Sustainability, Kevin also served as a Director on the Board of the Sustainability Management Association for four years until 2021.
You can follow Kevin on his BLOG at www.SustainabilityX.com and on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevincochran
Jen is currently a Senior Funding Consultant at Benetrends financial. Jen was the proud CEO, President and CF of My House Fitness Franchise.
In 2004 after the birth of her first child, Jennifer put her lifelong passion for fitness to the test and began her position as Group Fitness Coordinator for LA Fitness in Florida.
Success at LA and her desire to correct what she saw was wrong with the large fitness chains lead her to open up her own community-based Fitness studio. With the help of her husband, in August of 2010 her dreams became a reality. And the first My House Fitness Studio opened!
The success of the studio was so fast and wonderful that she and her husband decided to expand. They opened My House Fitness Franchise Inc in the fall of 2011. They expanded to 2 corporate and 29 franchise locations in 10 states in a few short years.
Jen has spent her professional career as a franchisor and is an avid proponent of entrepreneurship today. She wants to share her experience and passion for franchising with you.
As a wife and a busy mom of 3 she understands the kind of quality life business ownership brings. If you are passionate and excited about starting a business or expanding into franchising and are looking for funding options, she can help bring your vision to life!
Today we welcome Justin Lindsey to The Cutting Onions Podcast. Justin has been a Chick-fil-A Owner/Operator for nearly 14 years. He is currently the Owner/Operator of Chick-fil-A Kendall located in Miami, Florida. Chick-fil-A Kendall is one of the Top 5 busiest restaurants in the entire Chick-fil-A chain, out of nearly 3,000 total restaurants.
Justin employs a staff of over 160 team members & 17 leaders. Justin is an innovator at heart. He lives by a personal mission of “leading with generosity.” That mission was at the center of Justin creating a first-of-its kind 3 Day Workweek for full time team members & leaders in his business.
This 3 Day Workweek has been featured in media interviews & news publications all around the country. It was even featured in international news markets for its revolutionary approach to restaurant scheduling. The 3 Day Workweek has positively transformed Justin’s business & granted his team the precious gift of time. Team members have more time available to focus on school, take care of children, & travel.
Of all the benefits that can be offered to team members, there are few as impactful as a 3 Day Workweek. Justin has helped many other Chick-fil-A locations & even businesses in other industries (i.e.: Casinos, Full-Service Restaurants, & Hotels) to implement 3 Day Workweeks.
A 3 Day Workweek can be executed in nearly any environment utilizing Justin’s approach to scheduling. To assist in the implementation of a 3 Day Workweek, Justin has collaborated in the development of a mobile app called Shift Fish that can be found on the Apple App Store & Google Play. It provides the flexibility & framework necessary to successfully roll out a 3 Day Workweek.
This was an absolutely incredible conversation, and we cannot wait for you to hear it!
We are so proud to bring you this episode of The Cutting Onions Podcast where we interview Subway Franchisee and Entrepreneur, Kristen Chandler.
This was an incredibly inspiring conversation that we are sure you will enjoy. Kristen gave us a masterclass in what it means to display grit in the face of adversity.
We appreciated Kristen's tenacity and the opportunities that she has created for her part-time team members to be able to work and contribute to their families while still having time for the things that were important to them outside of work.
We are pretty darn sure that this conversation will inspire you as much at it inspired us!
David DeSantis is a well-known name in the pizza industry. With 27 years of experience in the restaurant business, he has created six successful brands and owned 17 restaurants. However, his latest venture sets him apart from others in the industry: the creation of a cutting-edge supplier relationship management platform.
David’s passion for the restaurant business started at a young age. He grew up in a family of food lovers and learned the art of cooking from his grandmother. At eight years old, his family introduced Dunkin Donuts to Atlanta, and David was frying donuts by the age of ten.
David was a Domino’s Pizza delivery driver at sixteen and was managing the location by eighteen.
David and his brother Richard started their first pizza restaurant in Atlanta during the Olympics in 1996, and while operating what became a four-unit chain, David achieved his Executive Master’s in Business Administration from Kennesaw State University. David subsequently started the brands Peace Love & Pizza, The Jammin Pie, Bulldawg Pizza & Wings, Bring the Smoke BBQ and others.
After becoming a successful restaurateur, David realized there was a market gap when it came to managing relationships with suppliers. He needed an efficient way for restaurants to communicate with their suppliers, quickly manage inventory, automate price changes, consider rebates, bring transparency to contract negotiation, and audit supply chain contracts. This led to him starting Wook.ai.
But at the end of the day, Dave is an operator with a heart for helping other entrepreneurs be able to manage their business with transparency and real time data.
We think you will enjoy this episode very much. Here we go!
On today's episode of The Cutting Onions Podcast, Myles and I have a great conversation regarding an article that we read on LinkedIn from Emma Codd, who is the Global Chief Diversity Officer at the Deloitte.
In this article, Emma unpacks some incredible information and data around the mental health of Gen Z and Millennial workers, and how we as leaders can help remove the stigma around mental health issues.
This conversation blossomed into a dialogue around what we can do as leaders to reduce the stigma around mental health issues and also raise mental health awareness.
We also talk about how to look at our work weeks differently, and we discussed some interesting experiments that are happening out of the marketplace on the shorter work week and how that might reduce burnout.
Here is the link to Emma's article on LinkedIn. You are going to want to check this out!
Welcome to The Cutting Onions Podcast, Episode 82 which features Joseph Szala in a compelling conversation to talk about all things digital, loyalty, and how to create an amazing guest experience.
Joseph serves as Vice President of Digital Experience for Rapturous, a wing of 3 Owl. His hospitality-first approach and unyielding passion for creating remarkable digital restaurant experiences has positioned him as thought leader in the world of CX and UX as well as brand development and marketing.
He and the Rapturous team continue to craft superior digital restaurant experiences that realize measurable lifts in order averages, repeat traffic, loyalty, and revenue for an impressive suite of restaurant brands.
We know you are going to love this conversation! Enjoy.
