812: Brandon Knoepfle Owner/Operator of Acorn Grill Restaurant

With excitement allow me to intro owner-operator Acorn Grill Restaurant Brandon Knoepfle.

Check out episode 782 with Ryan Gromfin as mentioned in today's episode.

Brandon recommends Hireme - hiring software for restaurants!

Brandon also recommends Ovation - Restaurant Unstoppable hosted an Ovation workshop in the restaurant Unstoppable Network and you can check that out right here.

Show notes…

Calls to ACTION!!!

• Join Restaurant Unstoppable Network and connect with my past guest and a community of superfans.
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Favorite success quote or mantra:

• "Patience and persistence makes for an unbeatable combination for success."

In today's episode with Brandon Knoepfle we will discuss:

• Growing up in restaurants
• Working at Applebee's and finding mentors there
• Going to prison
• Living with addiction
• The power of writing/journaling
• Bootstrapping and building out a gutted restaurant
• Learning how to build a restaurant through audio books
• Branding and marketing
• Learning marketing through app development
• Creating a name for your restaurant and your concept
• Consumer-first marketing approach
• The hiring process
• Creating checklists
• Using profit first
• Partnerships

Today's sponsor:

Restaurant365 is a cloud-based, all-in-one, restaurant-specific accounting and back-office platform that seamlessly integrates with POS systems, payroll providers, food and beverage vendors. It generates accurate real-time reporting and analysis in user-friendly dashboards, facilitating immediate, data-driven decision making. Restaurant365 eliminates manual, error-prone processes and is designed to help restaurant businesses grow with functionality that helps optimize labor costs, reduce food costs and increase revenue.

Ecolab: Streamline your clean with Ecolab’s new EPA-registered 2-in-1 solution, Sink & Surface Cleaner Sanitizer. It will help reduce risk, simplify your procedures and help ensure compliance. This solution cleans and sanitizes hard non-porous surfaces with a single product, eliminates the rinse step and equips your staff to clean more efficiently. Clean simplified, confidence delivered.

Ovation: Recently voted the #1 guest feedback platform in a nationwide RestaurantOwner.com survey, Ovation uses a SMS-based survey as a “digital table touch” that has redefined guest feedback.  Through frictionless integrations with online ordering platforms and other tools, Ovation allows you to easily collect guest feedback, resolve concerns in real-time, get more 5-star reviews, and uncover insights to improve brand-wide.  As a listener of Restaurant Unstoppable, you’ll receive 2,000 FREE text messages - contact our team!

 

Knowledge bombs

1. Which "it factor" habit, trait, or characteristic you believe most contributes to your success?
   • Work ethic
2. What is your biggest weakness?
   • The negative side of my personality
3. What's one question you ask or thing you look for during an interview?
   • A genuine smile
4. What's a current challenge? How are you dealing with it?
   • My lack of skills. Always learning and absorbing
5. Share one code of conduct or behavior you teach your team.
   • Run a tight ship. What you do outside work is your business, but at the restaurant, you're here to work
6. What is one uncommon standard of service you teach your staff?
   • Find a way to deeply connect with your staff and customers
7. What's one book we must read to become a better person or restaurant owner?
   •  Never Split The Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It by Chris Voss
   • GET THIS BOOK FOR FREE AT AUDIBLE.COM 
8. What's one thing you feel restaurateurs don't know well enough or do often enough?
   • Putting themselves first. Letting their family go by the wayside
9. Name one service you've hired.
   • Sweetly Simplified Solutions for social media marketing
10. What's one piece of technology you've adopted within your restaurant walls and how has it influence operations?
    • 7Shifts
11. If you got the news that you'd be leaving this world tomorrow and all memories of you, your work, and your restaurants would be lost with your departure with the exception of 3 pieces of wisdom you could leave behind for the good of humanity, what would they be?
    • Don't stop trying
    • Be willing to say yes
    • Be mindful

Contact info:

www.acorngrill.com

Instagram: @acorngrill_

Thanks for listening!

Thanks so much for joining today! Have some feedback you’d like to share? Leave a note in the comment section below!

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Huge thanks to Brandon Knoepfle for joining me for another awesome episode. Until next time!

 

Restaurant Unstoppable is a free podcast. One of the ways I'm able to make it free is by earning a commission when sharing certain products with you. I've made it a core value to only share tools, resources, and services my guest mentors have recommend, first. If you're finding value in my podcast, please use my links!