The Restaurant Prosperity Formula – Details, episodes & analysis

Running a restaurant is no small feat — especially when life throws unexpected challenges your way. In this episode of The Restaurant Prosperity Formula podcast, I sit down with Tina Wary, owner of Dixie Grill Barbecue and Crab Shack in Hawaii. Wary shares her powerful journey from working behind the scenes in her family’s restaurant to stepping up as the owner after the sudden passing of her husband in 2020.

Her story is one of resilience, leadership and the power of systems. After struggling with financial inconsistencies despite a great team and excellent food, Wary attended my seminar in Las Vegas. She left with the tools to transform her restaurant, and in this episode she shares her journey putting those systems in place and the other tools she’s found since.

🖥️ Get My Latest Training Video: https://dsp.coach/training-opt-in 

👍 Book a Call ­– https://dsp.coach/podcast-ryan-call

Sponsor – Margin Edge: http://www.marginedge.com/dsp  

Visit my website for more information about my restaurant coaching program: www.davidscottpeters.com

One of the biggest reasons restaurants struggle with sales isn’t always the food or service — it’s awareness. Either people know about you but don’t care, or they would care if they knew about you. My guest today, Josh Kopel, calls this the Awareness Formula, and in this episode of my podcast, The Restaurant Prosperity Formula, he shares powerful strategies that help restaurant owners become known in their market. Kopel has mastered a critical component of restaurant success: marketing. He is not just a restaurateur — he’s a tech pioneer, a Michelin-rated fine dining operator, and one of the best marketing minds in the industry. If you’ve been struggling with getting more customers in the door, keeping your tables full, and making marketing work for your restaurant, this episode is for you.

🖥️ Get My Latest Training Video: https://dsp.coach/training-opt-in 

👍 Book a Call ­– https://dsp.coach/podcast-ryan-call

Sponsor – Margin Edge: http://www.marginedge.com/dsp  

Visit my website for more information about my restaurant coaching program: www.davidscottpeters.com

Learn more about Josh Kopel at www.JoshKopel.com and on his podcast Full Comp.

Building a strong restaurant team isn’t about luck — it’s about being intentional, setting the right tone and leading by example. Hire the right people, train them well, hold them accountable, and recognize their efforts. When you invest in your team, they’ll invest in you and that’s when your restaurant will truly prosper. In this episode of “The Restaurant Prosperity Formula,” restaurant coach David Scott Peters explores a topic that many restaurant owners overlook but is essential for success: team building. This episode is all about creating a team that is engaged, productive and aligned with your restaurant's vision.

🖥️ Get My Latest Training Video: https://dsp.coach/training-opt-in 

👍 Book a Call ­– https://dsp.coach/podcast-ryan-call

Sponsor – Margin Edge: http://www.marginedge.com/dsp  

Visit my website for more information about my restaurant coaching program: www.davidscottpeters.com

In this episode of The Restaurant Prosperity Formula podcast, host David Scott Peters talks about the dangers of being a business owner who enables a work environment where no one is accountable, and the restaurant owner thinks they must be the best at everything. The problem with this is if you’re so good at doing everyone’s job and taking it over, your team learns they don’t have to be good or do the work. When you take over everything and don’t give your employees and managers room to do their jobs, they start to resent you and let you do all the work. If this sounds familiar, or if you’ve worked with this person, know this is a classic problem in the restaurant industry. In the case of restaurant owners, you start to resent that you’re doing all the work – even though you brought it on yourself. I call these restaurant owners enablers. This enabling behavior provides your employees with excuses for why they don’t have to do their jobs. They never get written up and suffer the consequences from not doing their jobs because you will just do it for them. Listen to this episode to find out if you are an enabler, or if you work with an enabler, and how to break the enabling cycle.

Watch for 3 Principles of Restaurant Success: https://dsp.coach/3-key-principles

Sponsor – Repeat Returns: http://repeatreturns.com/dsp

In this episode of The Restaurant Prosperity Formula podcast, host David Scott Peters talks about the secret to being a successful restaurant owner. The answer? Find someone who gets stuff done. As an owner, you can’t do it all yourself. It’s just impossible. Plus, it’s not your job to do everything in the restaurant. Your job is to lead and take on more strategic activities such as marketing and development of growth paths. To do this successfully, you must identify or hire someone on your team who can be relied upon to get you up and running with systems and get things done. Many times owners choose someone they think will be a great implementer, but they turn out to be the opposite. What’s the opposite of an implementer? A saboteur. They stop all progress dead in its tracks, and they have all the excuses for doing it. How do you know if you have an implementer or a saboteur? Listen to this episode to learn about the four types of saboteurs.

Watch for 3 Principles of Restaurant Success: https://dsp.coach/3-key-principles

Sponsor – Repeat Returns: http://repeatreturns.com/dsp

In this episode of The Restaurant Prosperity Formula podcast, host David Scott Peters talks about owners of independent restaurants and their tendency to overwork themselves while also freeing their management team of accountability. David teaches you how to put yourself in a place of leadership and three lessons you must teach your managers and supervisors to empower them to do their job so you don’t have to. Managers play a critical role in the most successful restaurateurs’ businesses. To further set the path to success, David teaches five critical steps to successful delegation and why holding restaurant’s managers accountable is so important.

Watch for 3 Principles of Restaurant Success: https://dsp.coach/3-key-principles

Sponsor – Repeat Returns: http://repeatreturns.com/dsp

In this episode of The Restaurant Prosperity Formula podcast, host David Scott Peters talks about the massive increase in restaurant sales that is coming for every restaurant along with the quickest path to prepare for it. As vaccine shots go into more arms and restrictions are lifted in more cities and states, everyone who has been abiding by the stay-home recommendations is going to flooding businesses like restaurants. They want to eat in restaurants, not just order take out from restaurants. They want drinks on the patio, not the take-home version of the cocktails you serve. They’re coming. Are you ready? Do you have the staff you need? Do you have the systems in place to maximize every dollar that comes into the restaurant? David provides nine things to do right now to prepare for success. For today’s discussion, David also talks about the difference between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset and why it matters.

Watch for 3 Principles of Restaurant Success: https://dsp.coach/3-key-principles

Restaurant Training 10 Steps to a Great Service Training Plan for Independents

In this episode of The Restaurant Prosperity Formula podcast, host David Scott Peters welcomes back Darren Denington, CFBE, founder of Service with Style. Darren has more than 30 years of experience in the hospitality industry and has an extensive background as a food and beverage director, executive chef, general manager, restaurant owner, staff trainer, restaurant coach and consultant. He holds the most prestigious certification available for a hospitality professional being a certified food and beverage executive. Darren is the founder of Service With Style Hospitality Group, a hospitality firm offering secret shopping, restaurant coaching and team training services. For today’s discussion, we focus on Darren’s 10 steps to building a great service training plan for your restaurant.

Get Your Discount with Service with Style: servicewithstyle.com/dsp

Watch for 3 Principles of Restaurant Success: dsp.coach/3-key-principles

Sponsor: Repeat Returns, repeatreturns.com/dsp

Restaurateur Couple Shares How They Went from Hobbyists to Entrepreneurs

In this episode of The Restaurant Prosperity Formula podcast, host David Scott Peters talks with Brianna and Jonathan Cowan, owners of The Wooden Paddle in Lemont, Illinois. I first met them at the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Show over a decade ago, and they made a decision to get on an airplane a week later to attend one of my four day workshops in Las Vegas. At that time, their business really needed to grow. Fast forward to March 2020 when we reconnected at Catersource, days before COVID-19 business restrictions shut down their dining room and catering events. Listen in on our conversation as they share with us their incredible journey of taking their passion for hospitality and turning it into a thriving business.

Watch for 3 Principles of Restaurant Success: https://dsp.coach/3-key-principles

Sponsor: The Catering Coach, http://www.thecateringcoach.com/dsp

In this episode of The Restaurant Prosperity Formula podcast, host David Scott Peters talks with Brian Mueller, owner of Blue Coast Burrito in Cookeville, Tenn. Brian was a general manager of a Blue Coast Burrito location and had an opportunity to purchase the location he managed. During this conversation, Brian and David talk about the transition from being a general manager to an owner and the strategies Brian used to shift his focus from one to the other. Specifically, he talks about the importance of being able to teach and trust others to do the daily tasks so he could focus on the responsibilities of being an owner. He shares the results of working with David, including the systems that have made the biggest impact on his business. One of Brian’s goals was to have time off, which he wasn’t sure would be possible amid the pandemic. Tune in to learn what you can do in your restaurant business to achieve impressive results like Brian. 

Watch for 3 Principles of Restaurant Success: https://dsp.coach/3-key-principles

Sponsor: The Catering Coach, http://www.thecateringcoach.com/dsp