Blog

Welcome to the Surrender News/Blog.  Get the latest news, trends, tips and information to help you succeed and thrive in the workplace. For older blogs click the Archives or a Category.

  • To Live Your Best Life, Master Two Breakthrough Habits
    My younger clients – those successful multi-unit independent operators in their 30s, 40s, and 50s – very excitedly commit to building their net worth by developing their concepts, brands, people, and operational capabilities. But my clients in their 60s and 70s? They’ve been there, done that. Now, they want to take advantage of their success … Continued
  • The Most Important Thing to Do on Labor Day
    So here we are, Labor Day.  The psychic end to the summer, even our triple digit temperatures here in Texas seem to be over.  The beginning of the home stretch for the year and time to focus on the chance to have a great 4th quarter over the holidays. It’s Labor Day – the holiday … Continued
  • Swipe Right to Unlock Your Business’s True Potential
    Finally finding “the one” – the person your company has missed for its entire life – makes an incredible difference. This missing piece allows you to overcome the barriers between reliable and exceptional success.   It’s like a business version of a romance novel, but very real. But who is “the one”? Well, that all … Continued
  • How to Let People You Hired Share the Load
    My daughter just started high school. The most important message her new school is communicating to parents? “Stop solving your kid’s problems.” The school is requesting that, when our children come to us with a problem about school – whether their grades, schedule, or whatever occupies teenage minds – parents support students to figure out … Continued
  • Do You Watch Your Restaurant’s Most Important Number?
    Pop quiz: What did you learn last week from your guest count tracker, the one that compares each day in each unit with their counterpart last year? When restaurant owners start to think about guest count first – and they see it either holding, eroding, or slowly increasing – it inspires and demands action. It … Continued
  • Restaurateurs When You Want Change, Should You Think Big or Small?
    It may seem like “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma” (thank you, Winston Churchill, for the quote), but one of the great advantages you have as an owner of a small (or even medium-sized) business remains making big moves quickly. And in times like these, big moves are what you need if … Continued
  • Re-Investing in the Restaurant “Goldilocks Zone,” Where It’s Just Right
    Do you think your level of re-investment is too high, too low, or just right? Independent restaurant owners who understand the critical value of re-investing know that their real margins come from smart investments that help them keep up with guest expectations as well as their own mastery of profit. These owners typically operate at … Continued
  • How to Build Guest Count by Creating Outstanding Experiences
    Operators succeed in this challenging market by understanding the difference between a meal and an experience. Not by being like the operators who offer bundles and discounts. That’s a one-way ticket to nowhere. When you begin to understand that you no longer just sell meals, that’s when you start the process of increasing guest count.  … Continued
  • Useful Lessons Learned in the School of Restaurant Life
    I returned from the recent Texas Restaurant Show reflecting on the fact that people I have known for decades, as well as people I have just met, have at least one thing in common: They don’t walk around with PTSD after enduring an industry wide life-threatening crisis followed by the longest period of headwinds I … Continued
  • When You Lack Experience, Add Someone Who Has It
    “Fake it ’til you make it” is a horrible strategy for developing a multi-unit team, building a restaurant company, or come to think of it – anything else.          So how do you supervise your first operations director or marketing director? Or business manager or CFO? Or learning-and-development person? Successful restaurateurs look in the mirror and ask themselves … Continued
  • How Multi-Unit Supervisors Create Better Results
    You can’t afford to have multi-unit supervisors just run the machine. That’s always true, but especially in volatile and uncertain times like these. Instead of running the machine, your multi-unit supervisors must be building a better one.  Two Different Outcomes For people who work in your company, do the alarms in their phones wake them … Continued
  • See How to Support Your Restaurant on 3 Strong Pillars
    To be a front-runner restaurant brand in 2026, your business needs to have three solid pillars: Learn how to be strong in all three on Sunday, 7/12 at 11 AM at the Profit Lab,at my upcoming Texas Restaurant Show session “The Experience Economy: Crafting Your Concept to Compete in 2026 and Beyond.” See me there in San … Continued