Best Improving Restaurant Operations Podcasts (2025)

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Built to Serve, Not Sell: Darren Spicer’s Playbook for Turning Coffee Into Community 38:26

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3d ago38:26

38:26

Does the world really need another coffee shop? That’s the question Darren Spicer had to answer before walking away from a six-figure career to start Clutch Coffee. The answer wasn’t coffee—it was connection. In this episode, Darren breaks down why community, not caffeine, is his true product, what he learned from Dutch Bros, how he made it his own…

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Office Hours: Events Are Fake Marketing 8:44

4d ago8:44

8:44

I’m Josh Kopel, a Michelin-awarded restaurateur and the creator of the Restaurant Scaling System. I’ve spent decades in the industry, building, scaling, and coaching restaurants to become more profitable and sustainable. On this show, I cut through the noise to give you real, actionable strategies that help independent restaurant owners run smarter…

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Scaling Through Saturation: Aaron Bludorn on Mastering Occasion 35:03

6d ago35:03

35:03

How do you define luxury? What if it isn’t about white tablecloths—but about meeting every guest, every need, every time? Aaron Bludorn didn’t just open a restaurant—he opened a new playbook for hospitality. After a business education under Daniel Boulud and Gavin Kaysen, Aaron took a massive bet: move to Houston, build a concept mid-pandemic, and …

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Stop Worshiping ‘Consistency:’ How Yann de Rocheford Scaled by Systemizing Vibe 40:51

10d ago40:51

40:51

Everyone says restaurants are about food, service, or scale. But what if it’s really about emotional engineering? Yann didn’t come from the kitchen. He came from the world of marketing and strategy. But when he opened Boqueria, he reimagined what a restaurant could be—vibe-forward, high-design, emotionally resonant, and built to scale. In this epis…

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Office Hours: Design Each Daypart as Its Own Business 9:50

11d ago9:50

9:50

I’m Josh Kopel, a Michelin-awarded restaurateur and the creator of the Restaurant Scaling System. I’ve spent decades in the industry, building, scaling, and coaching restaurants to become more profitable and sustainable. On this show, I cut through the noise to give you real, actionable strategies that help independent restaurant owners run smarter…

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You Don’t Have to Be L.A. to Be Legendary: Eric Bost on Building Fine Dining Outside the Bubble 39:25

9d ago39:25

39:25

By Josh Kopel

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Grow Deep, Not Wide: Mark Rampolla’s Five-Year Rule for Building Brands That Last 42:32

17d ago42:32

42:32

What if your next move isn’t another location—it’s owning a moment in your guest’s life? Mark Rampolla built ZICO into a category and now backs founders with a $600M fund; his playbook is built for operators under pressure. We talk about the five-year reality of product-market fit, why velocity per store beats “more units,” and how owning a specifi…

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How This London Agency Owner Built Disney's Marketing Strategy Charlie Terry 54:25

13d ago54:25

54:25

✅ How This London Agency Owner Built Disney's Marketing Strategy: Charlie Terry 👇👇@kaizenmarketing8420 🙏🙏 Watch The Video & Don’t Forget to Like, Comment, Subscribe, & Share 🧡 💠 Meet Charlie Terry, CEO of Seek, who started with hospitality marketing in London and evolved into an international omnichannel agency working with Disney, Delicious Ella, …

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Office Hours: Merchandise Minutes, Not Meals 7:57

18d ago7:57

7:57

I’m Josh Kopel, a Michelin-awarded restaurateur and the creator of the Restaurant Scaling System. I’ve spent decades in the industry, building, scaling, and coaching restaurants to become more profitable and sustainable. On this show, I cut through the noise to give you real, actionable strategies that help independent restaurant owners run smarter…

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Do You Even Need SEO? Unfiltered Truth with Jeff Collins 18:24

15d ago18:24

18:24

✅ Do You Even Need SEO? Unfiltered Truth with Jeff Collins 👇👇@kaizenmarketing8420 🙏🙏 Watch The Video & Don’t Forget to Like, Comment, Subscribe, & Share 🧡 💠 In this episode of The Art of Kaizen for Entrepreneurs, we bring in SEO veteran Jeff Collins—whose resume includes leading Purple Mattress’s rise to search dominance—to cut through the noise. J…

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The Connection Hack: Pepper Baumer on Building a Relationship-Based Empire 36:11

20d ago36:11

36:11

What if your factory was idling, your shelves were empty, and your business had just lost $15 million—and you still chose not to lay off a single person? That’s the line Pepper Baumer drew. As the third-generation CEO of Crystal Hot Sauce, he inherited a 100-year-old legacy—and nearly watched it collapse under the weight of supply chain failure, ma…

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Relationship First Marketing The Blueprint for Agency Growth Francis Volpe 40:00

17d ago40:00

40:00

✅ Relationship First Marketing: The Blueprint for Agency Growth | Francis Volpe 👇👇@kaizenmarketing8420 🙏🙏 Watch The Video & Don’t Forget to Like, Comment, Subscribe, & Share 🧡 💠 Meet Francis Volpe, head of content creation at Why Not You Media, whose journey from professional stuntman to social media strategist reveals the power of purpose over mot…

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Perfect Meals Don’t Matter: Sara Fay Egan on Experiences That Scale 37:16

24d ago37:16

37:16

If your guests remember the night but forget the meal, did you succeed? Sara Fay Egan never planned to run restaurants—she built experiences. After a career in high-end event planning, she was thrust into leadership at Beale Street Blues Company after the sudden passing of her father. But instead of mimicking traditional models, she brought an outs…

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Meet Kaizen the 1% agency that's changing how businesses approach digital marketing. 13:47

20d ago13:47

13:47

✅ Meet Kaizen—the 1% agency that's changing how businesses approach digital marketing. 👇👇@kaizenmarketing8420 🙏🙏 Watch The Video & Don’t Forget to Like, Comment, Subscribe, & Share 🧡 💠 We're not your typical marketing agency. We're business owners, data scientists, creators, and copywriters united by one mission: growing revenue for every business …

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Community Over Camera The Key to Video Marketing 28:32

25d ago28:32

28:32

✅ Community Over Camera The Key to Video Marketing 👇👇@kaizenmarketing8420 🙏🙏 Watch The Video & Don’t Forget to Like, Comment, Subscribe, & Share 🧡 💠 What happens when you realize that staying "out of sight" means being "out of referrals"? Vikram Rajan built VideoSocial after discovering that even confident public speakers struggle with the consiste…

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Competition Isn’t Your Biggest Threat: Jean-Pierre Lacroix on the Power of Relevance 39:12

27d ago39:12

39:12

What if your restaurant’s biggest threat isn’t your competition—it’s your own irrelevance? Jean-Pierre Lacroix has spent decades helping brands regain their footing after losing touch with what made them matter. In today’s conversation, we unpack what’s killing restaurant loyalty—and it’s not what you think. Jean-Pierre argues that operators are ov…

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From 3 Books to Bestseller: The Marketing Strategist Behind 350 Book Launches | Keren Camou 36:57

24d ago36:57

36:57

✅From 3 Books to Bestseller: The Marketing Strategist Behind 350+ Book Launches | Keren Camou 👇👇@kaizenmarketing8420 🙏🙏 Watch The Video & Don’t Forget to Like, Comment, Subscribe, & Share 🧡 💠 Meet Keren Camus, the serial entrepreneur and neurolinguistics expert who has launched over 350 books and transforms authors from "real-life influencers" into…

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Quality is Overrated: Allan Dib on Scaling Sales the Smart Way 39:20

1M ago39:20

39:20

Most restaurant owners think better food or better service will win the game. But Allan Dib has a different take: your product is not your problem—your marketing is. Allan is the best-selling author of The 1-Page Marketing Plan, and in this conversation, he dismantles the myths that keep restaurants stuck. We get into the high cost of bad positioni…

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Office Hours: Enrollment Beats Training 7:23

1M ago7:23

7:23

I’m Josh Kopel, a Michelin-awarded restaurateur and the creator of the Restaurant Scaling System. I’ve spent decades in the industry, building, scaling, and coaching restaurants to become more profitable and sustainable. On this show, I cut through the noise to give you real, actionable strategies that help independent restaurant owners run smarter…

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Burnout Isn’t a Badge: Ahu Hettema on Risk, Reinvention, and Building Restaurants That Work 35:19

1M ago35:19

35:19

Ahu Hettema didn’t hedge her bets—she burned the boats. No Plan B. No safety net. Just a belief that betting everything on one restaurant could rewrite her life. And it did. But not through stubbornness. Through adaptation. In this episode, Ahu breaks down how listening—really listening—to her guests saved her concept, why comfort matters more than…

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This Is What Luxury Actually Feels Like: Chris Adams on Culture, Tech, and the Soul of Service 36:59

1M ago36:59

36:59

Chris Adams does. He’s built a business on showing some of the biggest brands in the world how to make guests feel something—without faking it. In this episode, we dig into what defines modern luxury and why it has less to do with money and more to do with culture, people, and emotional precision. Chris shares how AI and tech can enhance—not replac…

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Office Hours: Acquire Talent, Don’t Nurture It 9:00

1M ago9:00

9:00

I’m Josh Kopel, a Michelin-awarded restaurateur and the creator of the Restaurant Scaling System. I’ve spent decades in the industry, building, scaling, and coaching restaurants to become more profitable and sustainable. On this show, I cut through the noise to give you real, actionable strategies that help independent restaurant owners run smarter…

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From Maxed-Out Credit Cards to 41 Locations: John Gelastopoulos on Building Broken Yolk’s Lasting Momentum 35:49

1M ago35:49

35:49

Most people buy a restaurant and inherit someone else’s problems. John Gelastopoulos bought a closed breakfast spot, maxed out his credit cards to keep it alive—and turned it into a 41-location powerhouse. The secret? Relentless persistence and an obsession with people. In this conversation, John shares how he went from washing dishes to franchisin…

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A-Players and SOPs: The Foundation of Agency Growth | Alec Winter 48:34

1M ago48:34

48:34

✅ A-Players and SOPs: The Foundation of Agency Growth | Alec Winter 👇👇@kaizenmarketing8420 🙏🙏 Watch The Video & Don’t Forget to Like, Comment, Subscribe, & Share 🧡 💠 Meet Alec Winter, founder of Creators Collective, who went from living in his mom's basement after a failed VR startup to building a 45-person marketing agency dominating niches like a…

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Geoff Alexander on Leveling Up Leadership Skills 37:57

1M ago37:57

37:57

After 30 years with restaurant conglomerate Lettuce Entertain You, Geoff Alexander could teach a masterclass on building and scaling a restaurant brand. And that’s exactly what he’s done for us today. In this far reaching conversation we discuss the essential elements of leadership, how to build a brand from the ground up, turnaround strategies for…

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The Revenue Flywheel: From Operations to Retention | Italo Leiva 51:47

1M ago51:47

51:47

✅ The Revenue Flywheel: From Operations to Retention | Italo Leiva 👇👇@kaizenmarketing8420 🙏🙏 Watch The Video & Don’t Forget to Like, Comment, Subscribe, & Share 🧡 💠 "Failure isn't failure unless you quit." In this episode, we sit down with Italo, founder of Pedal, who transformed early business disappointments into a revolutionary approach to reven…

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Office Hours: Sell the Thing People Dream About 7:42

2M ago7:42

7:42

I’m Josh Kopel, a Michelin-awarded restaurateur and the creator of the Restaurant Scaling System. I’ve spent decades in the industry, building, scaling, and coaching restaurants to become more profitable and sustainable. On this show, I cut through the noise to give you real, actionable strategies that help independent restaurant owners run smarter…

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Brad Wise on Transforming a Bad Launch Into an Epic Brand 31:30

2M ago31:30

31:30

Sometimes the only difference between those who succeed and those who fail is the decision to not give up. Today’s guest, Chef Brad Wise, is a testament to the grit required to build something prolific in our industry. In our conversation we discuss how to overcome a slow start and how he turned a failed bar into the hottest steakhouse concept on t…

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Beyond Food: Creating Memorable Experiences for Restaurants | Shardul Kiri 25:20

2M ago25:20

25:20

✅ Beyond Food: Creating Memorable Experiences for Restaurants | Shardul Kiri 👇👇@kaizenmarketing8420 🙏🙏 Watch The Video & Don’t Forget to Like, Comment, Subscribe, & Share 🧡 💠 "You can have amazing food and a bad experience, and customers will never return." In this value-packed episode, Shardul Kiri, founder of Cultivate Hospitality, shares the cou…

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Bruce Bromberg on the Fundamentals of Scaling 39:14

2M ago39:14

39:14

Chef Bruce Bromberg is not the typical restaurant magnate that comes to mind when you think of a national restaurant group. More than anything, he’s a chef, leveraging the universal truths he’s learned over the years in innovative ways. His ability to translate the fundamentals of cooking to the fundamentals of business has led to his meteoric succ…