The Restaurant Coach Podcast
Donald Burns hosts this podcast focused on helping restaurant owners and chefs improve their businesses. It provides practical tools, techniques, and tips for achieving better results and personal growth. Burns shares his unique coaching methods that have created dramatic change for his clients. The show encourages listeners to elevate both their business and life to the next level.
Episodes
Episode 184 – Your Menu Is Programming Your Guests
Your Menu Is Programming Your Guests: The Psychology Behind Every Purchase
Most restaurant owners think their menu is a list of food.
It’s not.
It’s the most powerful sales tool in your restaurant.
Long before your server greets the table, your guests have already begun making buying decisions. Every price, every description, every section, every design choice, and every word on your m
Episode 183 -The Real Problem With Your Staff
What if your staffing problem isn’t actually a staffing problem?
Every restaurant owner has experienced it.
You interview someone who seems perfect. They say all the right things. They start strong. You begin imagining how much easier life is about to become.
Then, a few weeks later…
They lose their urgency.
They create drama.
They damage your culture.
Or they disappear without warning
Episode 182 – The Prison You Created
What if the biggest thing holding your restaurant back… is you?
Most restaurant owners believe they’re trapped by labor shortages, rising food costs, inflation, or a lack of good employees.
But what if those aren’t the real prison?
What if the prison was built one decision, one belief, and one story at a time?
In this episode of The Restaurant Coach Podcast, Donald Burns challeng
Episode 181 – Leadership Is a System with Jarred Patterson
Leadership Is a System
With Jarred Patterson, COO — New South Restaurant Group
Most restaurant owners think leadership is a personality trait.
Something you’re born with.Something you either “have” or you don’t.
That belief is exactly why so many restaurants stay stuck.
In Episode 181 of The Restaurant Coach Podcast, I sit down with Jarred Patterson, COO of New South Restaurant Group, to break tha
Episode 180 – Why Systems Beat Passion Every Time with Nick Mattia
In Episode 180 of The Restaurant Coach Podcast, I sit down with Nick Mattia, the founder and owner of Ready Strong Meals, for a raw, honest conversation about what really happens when ambition meets reality in the restaurant and food business.
Nick didn’t come into the industry clueless.He came in with knowledge, confidence, and a clear vision.
And that’s exactly what almost broke him.
When “Knowi
Episode 179 – From Surviving to Thriving with Madison Bree
What happens when you refuse to let a good restaurant quietly die?
In this episode of The Restaurant Coach Podcast, Donald Burns sits down with Madison Bree, a first-time restaurant owner who took a massive leap of faith by buying an existing restaurant in Michigan that still had a name… but was slowly bleeding out.
The restaurant was Kathy’s 126.The reputation was there.The energy, systems, and v
Episode 178 – Chef Neo vs. The Matrix (with Craig Shelton)
What happens when a James Beard Award–winning chef looks around the modern food industry and realizes the system was never built to serve craft, soul, or truth?
This episode is a WAKE-UP CALL.
In Chef Neo vs. The Matrix, I sit down with legendary Chef Craig Shelton for a raw, unfiltered conversation about what mass production, scale-at-all-costs, and corporate commercialization have done to the he
Episode 177 – From Firefighter Mode to Success Mode with Megan Coignard
In this episode of The Restaurant Coach Podcast, I sit down with Megan Coignard, owner of Nicolo’s Pizza in Lakewood, Colorado—an independent restaurant operator who was once drowning in chaos, burnout, and the never-ending cycle every owner knows too well: firefighter mode.
Two years ago, Megan picked up the phone because she had hit a wall. No more ideas. No more bandwidth. No more margin for er
Episode 176 – From Bleeding Cash to Banking Profit with Matt & Stephanie Dunken
In this episode of The Restaurant Coach® Podcast, I sit down with Matt & Stephanie Dunken, the powerhouse duo behind Slam Dunk Pizza. Their story is one every independent restaurant owner needs to hear.
When they started working with the TRC Method, they were drowning with a prime cost of 94%.
Profit was non-existent, stress was constant, and vacations were nothing more than wishful thinking.
Episode 175 – Passion Drives Profits with Mark & Ruth Mills of The Plough
Restaurants are rarely just about food.
The ones that rise above the noise—the ones that dominate their markets—understand that culture drives everything. That’s the story behind The Plough @ Myrniong in Australia, led by Mark and Ruth Mills.
In this episode of The Restaurant Coach Podcast, we uncover what happens when passion is channeled into purpose, when culture becomes the compass, and when t
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