Angelo Esposito [00:00:12]:

Welcome to another episode of WISKing It All. We're here today with Christin Marvin, author, restaurant coach and podcaster. Christin, thanks for joining us.

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Christin Marvin [00:00:22]:

Thank you so much for having me.

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Angelo Esposito [00:00:23]:

Yeah, I'm excited to chat with you. A lot of experience in the hospitality space, but as always, I love to understand why people do what they do. So before we get into all the nitty gritty details, high level, what got you into the hospitality space in the first place?

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Christin Marvin [00:00:38]:

Yeah, I think a lot, like a lot of people. I started in the hospitality industry when I was 15 as a line cook. It was my first job. I was in, you know, restaurants for briefs, and I started working at my family's favorite Mexican restaurant. I jumped out of hospitality, tried my hand in retail, was very quickly bored by that, and immediately, immediately got back into the industry. And so I was in it for 20 years. I, you know, worked my way up through serving, bartending, agm, gm, managing partner, went back to gm, went to regional manager. Just really loved the industry and every aspect of it.

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Christin Marvin [00:01:14]:

But there's, you know, one of the things I love about this industry is I've had the pleasure of opening 13 different restaurants. There's so much fun space to play and just be creative and innovative. So I always had, like, every five years I was, I'd had that conversation with myself, like a lot of people do. I'm going to get out. I'm going to get out of the industry. I'm going to get out, you know, like we're breaking out of prison. Right, right. And when I started to look at other things, there was just, there was nothing else I loved more than what I was doing.

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Christin Marvin [00:01:39]:

So I've been. And it's made me who I am. I'm, I'm grateful to, to make it a career.

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Angelo Esposito [00:01:44]:

That's awesome. No, it's, it's, it's, it's funny. It's, it's a thread I see with a lot of people in this space is like just, just the passion for hospitality and this kind of idea that they're just, even when they try their things, they're just drawn back to it. And I think hospitality in general is so stimulating that, like, sometimes I don't want to say everything, but a lot of other options end up living up to that same stimulus because you have to do so many things in the restaurant hospitality world. Right. So it's like entrepreneur, but entrepreneur on steroids because it's, it's a physical location, plus it's like staff, plus there's labor, plus there's backend stuff. Like everything you need in business is just like harder. So it's like a really hard business.

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Angelo Esposito [00:02:25]:

But at the same time I think that's what makes it so stimulating, right?

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Christin Marvin [00:02:28]:

Yeah, absolutely.

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Angelo Esposito [00:02:29]:

That's awesome. Well, look, I'd love to understand what inspired you to maybe transition from managing restaurants, running restaurants, right, like opening restaurants etc to then becoming a hospitality consultant and kind of this coaching role.

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Christin Marvin [00:02:42]:

Yeah, absolutely. It's a great question. I was in a position later in my career, as I grew, I started opening the same concept over and over and over again with a company that kind of went corporate. And that was something that I had never wanted to do in my career, never experienced. It was kind of a surprise. Aha moment. After I got hired, I completely burn out. I was also in a position where I was not feeling super supported by the leader I was, I was working with.

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Christin Marvin [00:03:10]:

And I was in an environment that I didn't love for about three years time. And what I took away from that, yeah, I chose to stay in that environment because I. It's a long time.

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Angelo Esposito [00:03:19]:

Yeah, it's a long time. Yeah.

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Christin Marvin [00:03:21]:

But instead of investing in myself, which is something I'd always done to get to the level I was, I started to rely on the company and all the KPIs and thought that that was development again, being in this position of rapid growth for the first time and not really knowing what to expect. So instead of handling it in a really healthy way, I drank really heavily to cover up the stress and unhappiness and I completely burnt myself out by doing that. And so I had to take a step back. I'd had a health scare, my husband had two. We were living very dangerously when it came to our relationship with alcohol. And I started working with a coach because I raised my hand and I knew I needed some help. And I didn't know exactly what that looked like. And so three or four sessions into the coaching, I had a huge moment of insight.

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Christin Marvin [00:04:12]:

I mean, I went into it going, I don't know what I want to do next. I need to get out of operations. I want to get out of operations. I'm madly in love with this industry and I want to get back to the person that I knew that I was before. And I knew I had energy, more energy and more capacity and more creativity in me to do something bigger and different and better in my mind. And so working with a coach helped me have that moment of insight. And that was remembering that sitting across the table from somebody or sitting across from Zoom Having this one on one time, like, like we're doing now was my favorite part of hospitality. And so I had known over my 20 years in the business that there's a huge lack of leadership development resources for this, for the restaurant industry specifically.

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Christin Marvin [00:04:59]:

And. And that moment of insight just lit a fire in me, and I was like, you know what? I see the pain point. I know I can help. I've been through this myself. I don't want people to burn out. I know the reputation this industry has, and I'm going to spend the rest of my career providing as many leadership development resources as I possibly can. And that's where the business came from. And the podcast and the book and the newsletters and the content and all this, that's awesome.

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Christin Marvin [00:05:25]:

Great body of work that I have today.

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Angelo Esposito [00:05:27]:

Yeah. And we'll definitely jump into each one. I see you got the book behind you, so we'll jump into that. And I want to hear more about the podcast and all the other stuff. And really, I want to highlight there because I think you said a couple interesting things. One is that really stuck. And I want to kind of just, you know, highlight it is that idea of just, number one, becoming self aware, right? Like, that's such a important thing to do and, like, you were able to recognize, okay, listen, I have this problem now. I know I need help.

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Angelo Esposito [00:05:54]:

This is what I need. So being vulnerable and kind of like just, you know, number one, just understanding where you're at is such an important thing for people. Listening. Definitely that I think is one highlight is like, don't be scared to get help. Like, like most of us can. Everyone can. Can benefit from a coach, right? Like, no matter where you are in life, which for me, that was always like, just to give you a quick parallel, when I was younger, I always thought, like, coaches in general were like, oh, it's for people that don't know what they're doing or they're like, they're not, you know, it's because they're not good enough. You coach.

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Angelo Esposito [00:06:23]:

But then as I got older, I realized, wait, no, like, some of the best people in the world have code. Like, everyone has a coach who wants to operate at a high level. You think about, I don't know, Olympians, they have a. It's like, why can't you have a life coach? Why can't you have a business coach? Why can't you have a coach for whatever, you know, lane of work you're in or career? And that's one. I don't know. I think I think now it's not as taboo, but it seemed almost like a negative in the past where it's like, oh, they. She needs a coach. Where now it's like, it's like a strength.

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Angelo Esposito [00:06:47]:

It's like, oh, nice. She's wise enough to realize, like, I want to learn, I want to grow faster. Let me find someone who's a few steps ahead of where I've been and where I want to go, and that could show me the path to get there. And it's almost now like a clear plus where, like, I feel in the past there was like a phase or there was a time where maybe it was looked at differently.

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Christin Marvin [00:07:06]:

It's so true. It's the best part of what I do. I mean, I get to be a strategic partner for independent restaurant operators that don't have the finances to have a team of people around them to strategize with, to bounce ideas off of, to be vulnerable with. And I get to cheer them on and I get to validate and hold up a mirror for them and go look at all the great things you're doing. But we get to slow down, right? Which. Which independent restaurant owners don't do very often slow down and take a look at the big picture and really clearly articulate a path going forward and make sure that they are staying true to what they want and why they got into this business in the first place. Because it's easy to forget that, yeah.

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Angelo Esposito [00:07:42]:

Big time, it's funny WISK. And again, it's not to make this about WISKing at all, because the podcast is about the guests, but just to give you a quick parallel is like our why is to give restaurateurs back their time and so they can focus on their passion. And the idea is, really is like most press on tours get into the business because of, generally speaking, their love for the hospitality space. And that could be a mix of many things. It could be the culinary side, maybe the mixology side, it could be architecture, design, whatever. But they get into it for this kind of love and passion, and I feel like they quickly get blindsided by the reality of, like, holy shit, this is a real business. But it's like, it's not an easy business. It's not like you're opening up a, I don't know, car wash or something.

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Angelo Esposito [00:08:22]:

It's like, it's operationally heavy. You're generally open almost every day. You have a lot of staff. It's labor intensive. Cost of goods are complicated because they're perishable items. It's like it's a business but in every area of the business it's like on the from easy to hard, it's to the harder side. So it's like a really hard business. And it's like our why was like, man, if we can at least help with that cost of good side.

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Angelo Esposito [00:08:43]:

Because it's like so many. I. It almost pains me. It's like you see their passion for this space and then they get in and they're like, man, I didn't realize I had to do this and this and that and it's like so painful. So I love to know like how do you. And we could jump into more detail, but what are some things you typically see independent restaurants facing with. So you know, we have a lot of listeners are listening in. What are things that generally when you go see a restaurant you're like, listen, if I was in here day one, of course it's a case by case basis.

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Angelo Esposito [00:09:09]:

Of course you gotta audit them and see where they can use help. But maybe what are some common, let's say issues that, and solutions that you kind of can see generally.

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Christin Marvin [00:09:17]:

Yeah.

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Angelo Esposito [00:09:18]:

You know what I mean? Like if there was a helping like average listener.

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Christin Marvin [00:09:21]:

Totally. And I love what you said, you know, earlier in this day and age, restaurants have always been challenging. And I know you've got this background of your, you know, your dad being in grocery and knowing all the different departments and all the things. Right. Restaurants have never been more challenging. You've got to have at least, you've got to have your tech stack, you've got to have your 10 channels that you're, you're looking through, right. And, and trying to be good at all of that is really hard. So I think a lot of, you know, what I with clients on is remembering that they don't have to be excellent and the expert in every single one of those and providing them resources and just the peace of mind that you got into this for a reason.

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Christin Marvin [00:09:58]:

You are passionate. Let's talk about what you want to do, what you want your role to be and then we're going to talk about what you want to do. I don't give people the answers. I'll give them some resources that they want. But I believe everyone is creative, resourceful and whole and they know their business inside and out. I'm not there to tell them how to run their business. So I'll give you a couple examples. I have a client who is a solo operator.

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Christin Marvin [00:10:21]:

He has three locations, he wants to move to New Zealand for a year and have his business be fully sustainable while he's gone. And so we are in the process right now of identifying key players on his team. We're looking at about a year out. We're putting roles and responsibilities in place for them. We're developing them, we're providing training for them and support so that they can figure out how to do this in a really well way, Putting systems in place, things like that. I've got another client who is. Is wildly successful and is trying to figure out how to be the conduit between the investors and the operational team and how to manage expectations on both sides and communicate really effectively and clearly because there are times when the management team isn't performing to the standard that they want, not because they're doing a bad job, but because the expectations have not been clearly communicated to the team. I have another client who has seven different concepts and multiple locations of each and came to me and was like, I don't know what the fuck I'm.

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Christin Marvin [00:11:27]:

I don't know if I can cuss, but I don't know. I don't know what I'm. Okay. I don't know what the fuck I'm doing anymore. I'm completely burnout and I'm not in the role I want to be. I want to be leading my team. I want to be developing people. I want to be strategizing.

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Christin Marvin [00:11:38]:

I want to be the CEO. It's like, okay, let's talk about the vision. Let's talk about what you want, where you want to go. Then we build a path to get there, and then we start to remove those roadblocks. And that takes sometimes six months. Sometimes it takes 12 to 18 months.

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Angelo Esposito [00:11:52]:

I can imagine. It's. It's funny because what you just mentioned on the last one made me think of something which is like, often restaurateurs, and it's the irony of it, but often restaurateurs and bar owners and etc. Just hospitality in general. They open their business being like, I want to be my own boss. And then it's like it quickly turns into, I am working 24 7. And, like, I would have had more freedom just being a 9 to 5 employee. What did I do? So it's like, if you don't.

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Angelo Esposito [00:12:21]:

And this is why, like, you know, coaching, consulting, having guidance, having a clear path, everything you're saying, leadership training, all these things are so important because if you don't go down that path, you end up being in a position where, like, you're like, man, I don't have weekends off. I can't remember the last time I went on a family vacation. I'm not really getting paid much because I got to make sure I'm making payroll for everyone else. And it's like, you know, it kind of almost spins. And it's like, man, I opened this to be my own boss, and now it's like, wait, what am I doing? And so I think you nailed it. But it's like trying to get people back to the why they did this in the first place and showing them a path to get there, which is sometimes hard when you're in it. It's hard to see the full picture. Right?

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Christin Marvin [00:12:59]:

Yeah. And it's. For a lot of them, it's learning how to set boundaries. Right. Like you said, you get into the business because you want to be your own boss. And you and I know this from being entrepreneurs.

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Angelo Esposito [00:13:09]:

Yeah.

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Christin Marvin [00:13:09]:

You're. You're always on because you're always thinking about the business. You're always seeing opportunity for the business. You're always, you know, it doesn't matter if you're on vacation or not. Your. Your mind is. Once you start that create those creative juices. Right?

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Angelo Esposito [00:13:21]:

You're going, yeah.

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Christin Marvin [00:13:22]:

So it's for some of the, you know, some of my clients, it's like, how. How do I shut this off? How do I, you know, Yes, I want to be on all the time. I love what I'm doing, but, yeah, how do I be present for my family? How do I be present for my friends? And how do I actually enjoy my time off? Or go for a bike ride for an hour and turn my phone off? And I have to help them get really uncomfortable and go, I'm going to challenge you to turn your fucking phone off for an hour. Can you do that and come back and see what happens? You know, and then they see what happens and they go, okay, okay, I can do. And I'm like, just keep doing that. It takes. It takes time to change those habits.

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Angelo Esposito [00:13:57]:

Yeah, I know It's. It's not easy. And getting to, you know, I want to get to all the stuff you're working on now, obviously, the company, so. So your consulting company is Solutions by Kristin. I love to understand what was the vision kind of when you started it and you touch on it, and maybe how has the vision kind of grown and where do you want to head when it comes to, you know, Solutions.

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Christin Marvin [00:14:15]:

By Christin Yeah, I mean, my number one goal and where I love spending the majority of my time is being an influential coach for restaurant Owners and operators in the independent space. I love working with people one on one. I do leadership development workshops as well. And then again, like I said, I'm creating this body of work on LinkedIn where you can go get a social post on leader leadership before you walk in for pre shift. You can read a two minute article if you want some inspiration or to work on developing your leadership. You can listen to the podcast. You can now purchase the book. So I'm trying to create a business where anyone can find these resources, whether it's for free or they want to spend 15 on something or they want a higher ticket item for their leadership team or they want some personalized one on one coaching.

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Christin Marvin [00:15:04]:

And so I do consulting as well because so often it's a blend. The coaching and consulting is a blend. I'm not going to be the person that's going to go in and work on your cogs. That's why I'm happy to have amazing connections like you and resources who are specialized in this. I want to get down to the root of what the biggest challenge is in somebody's business. Typically the challenge that they think they're dealing with is not what it is. There's something underneath that. So we peel back the layers together.

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Christin Marvin [00:15:33]:

So it's about building that relationship, providing that support, challenging them to get really, really uncomfortable, shifting their mindset and their perspective on how they're solving problems in their business and then just really looking at every single challenge coming their way as an opportunity for them to get better and better.

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Angelo Esposito [00:15:49]:

From what you've seen, right, you deal with so many different people with it with your coaching and consulting. I know obviously leadership is a big theme. So where do you see the restaurants usually fall short from a leadership perspective? Like what type of things are they doing wrong or can improve from your.

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Christin Marvin [00:16:05]:

Perspective, what I'm hearing right now is that the leadership teams are brand new, they're being promoted internally, and there's no structure in the business in order to support them from a training perspective, from a development perspective. So we know a lot of people left the industry during the pandemic. We know a lot of people have come back to the industry, but those people are different. So they're less experienced. Right. And which means they take more time to get up to speed. You need more formalized training. You need clear expectations set from the interview process to the training process to the first 90 days and making sure that those people are super successful to one on ones constant communication, creating a culture environment where they can succeed.

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Christin Marvin [00:16:48]:

So again with Independent restaurant owners, if they. If there's one of them that have two or three locations, because they typically work with people in that one to five space, they are trying to figure out how they can really best support their people with their very limited time and resources. And so they're wanting those systems in place, they're wanting that structure. But they're also really struggling with their confidence because a lot of them were brought up in the same industry. Right. That there wasn't a lot of leadership development then. So their question themselves. So I point back to.

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Christin Marvin [00:17:21]:

Let's talk about all the experience and resources that you have, build your confidence back up and then identify how you're going to be able to teach and train that to your team. So I'm really turning these restaurateurs into coaches themselves.

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Angelo Esposito [00:17:34]:

Wow, that's really powerful. And do you have any. I mean, obviously you do, but do you have any client success stories you can share? And specifically you can. Maybe if. I know it's hard sometimes when you ask success story, it's like, it's like, tell me a funny joke. It's hard to think of, like one on the spot. But if you have any that come to mind, I'd love to maybe zoom in on how you may have helped them from. From a transform.

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Angelo Esposito [00:18:01]:

Transformation of leadership. You know, style like. Like going in and being like, hey, we had a client that, you know, like really just to kind of paint the picture for people listening. I'll say, okay, I know we're struggling with leadership. I know we're struggling with these type of things. But I'd love to maybe get a little anecdote from Christin on, like a way she's. She's helped a restaurant and what that looked like from a transformational perspective.

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Christin Marvin [00:18:23]:

Yeah, absolutely. I have a client who has multiple concepts, 7 to 10. I've got to leave some stuff broad here because of some confidentiality. Right?

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Angelo Esposito [00:18:31]:

Yeah, yeah.

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Christin Marvin [00:18:32]:

When we started working together. Right. So you're talking about seven to 10 different concepts. Not all different. There's. There's groups inside those. But when we started working together, this person was so in their business that they were actually picking up at least seven shifts a month in their. Right.

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Christin Marvin [00:18:48]:

And that. I see, like the look on your face right now. That's. Yeah, I had to hide that on. On. On camera.

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Angelo Esposito [00:18:54]:

Right.

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Christin Marvin [00:18:54]:

I'm like, oh, shit, we're in trouble here. Because this person felt like they had to be that emergency point of contact and rescue for the teams.

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Angelo Esposito [00:19:08]:

30% of the month, pretty high number.

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Christin Marvin [00:19:11]:

So we really had to pull back on. Again, let's talk about what your role, what you want your role to be, not what you think your role should be. I think a lot of operators think that they have, again, like I said earlier, they think they have to be everything to everyone all the time. They don't. So we talked about the passion and the drive and where this person wanted to go. And then again we started to say, okay, we need to start by setting some boundaries in place. So what conversations do you want to have with your management team? And what structure do you need to have put into place so that they are not calling you to go pick up shifts when somebody gets sick or somebody calls out? Right. So we talked about in those similar concepts, how can they lean on each other? How can we set the expectation that when you are sick or something happens in the restaurant, someone else is going to have to cover your shift? It can't be me from a sustainability perspective.

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Christin Marvin [00:20:04]:

Right? So that was a really tough conversation to have. And then again, what support do we need? How do we build a bench of talent who on the team is ready to take the next step and wants more responsibility? A lot of times owners will say, oh, there's nobody, there's nobody. I challenge them to go back and actually have those conversations with people.

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Angelo Esposito [00:20:24]:

Right?

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Christin Marvin [00:20:24]:

Because they'll be surprised. Totally, totally. And then they say, okay, well, we've identified one person. Fantastic. Then we start working a development plan for that one person specifically. Right. Or hiring externally. So that's one.

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Christin Marvin [00:20:39]:

So starting to have them pull back a little bit and again, just set those boundaries, free up their time and their energy, figure out how to spend that time in that energy, because that's really uncomfortable. And then they start to feel guilty and lazy, right. Because they're not working in their business. And then they start to feel disconnected. So how do we set up communication forms? Right. Or check ins with the managers again so that they can coach and figure out, keep that communication flowing to them and help the teams be better problem solvers and help develop. So that has taken us over a year to really, really pull away, and it's been extraordinary.

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Angelo Esposito [00:21:18]:

That's awesome. No, it's well said. It's funny because I see so many parallels like that I've learned in my business, and there's similarities. Obviously it's different because since we're a tech company in the hospitality space, we have the benefit of not having a physical location that we physically have to open every day and close and clean up and check this. But there's A lot of things that you're saying that I'm just like, man, even just myself as a leader, I learned the hard way. That's why I was smiling when you're talking, because that feeling of as you delegate more efficiently and get better at that, then you're like, oh, I got time on my hands, and now you don't feel as valuable. And I think it's something a lot of entrepreneurs do in the beginning until you mature and then you realize, like, okay, it doesn't have to be like this, but in the beginning it's almost like you get some level of self worth from being busy totally. And then you eventually kind of go past and realize, okay, it's not just about being busy, it's about working on the right things.

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Angelo Esposito [00:22:09]:

And if I gotta do two, three good things per day, that's probably more powerful than me being super busy and, and taking over someone's shift. But maybe that's not as impactful. And so it's kind of like, you know, there's a lot of learning and growth. But I love that you're getting that message out and you're doing it in, in many different ways, like you said, from free content on LinkedIn to your book to consulting to high ticket stuff. So I'd love to maybe get into a few of those so people can figure out where they can get these. So why don't we start with the book? Because I see it for people who are watching the video version of this right above Christin's head. I see a book there that's called the Hospitality Leaders Roadmap. So let's talk about that.

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Angelo Esposito [00:22:47]:

First of all, what's the book about? I have an idea based on the title and based on a conversation. What's the book about? What inspired you to write it? And then, you know, where can people find it?

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Christin Marvin [00:22:54]:

Yeah. The book is about my 20 years of leadership lessons learned. In my experience, there's over 30 lessons in the book. I created really, really small chapters. There's six podcast episodes highlighted in there too. Off to the side in the chapters that you can go dive deeper into these. Yeah, not an original idea. There's, there's, you know, I stole everything.

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Christin Marvin [00:23:14]:

I steal everything still. And, you know, when we were talking earlier about my, my burnout and my journey in the industry, I was never great at being vulnerable, and I always was the leader that felt like I had to have really thick skin, show up, be a strong one for the team. Never let him see. Totally. Never let them see a sweat, never cry. Never get, you know, whatever. They'd see my passion. But I.

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Christin Marvin [00:23:40]:

But I never wanted to show any weakness or what I was weakness at the time, which was negative emotion or lack of energy or struggles. So anyway, this book is the total opposite of that. This is an opportunity for me to challenge myself and grow and get really vulnerable. So it's a pretty raw depiction of the industry, the successes and challenges. There's some fun stories in there of having Anthony Bourdain come to one of our restaurants and record, which is great and that's cool. Yeah, super fun. And what we prepared for him, which I won't give it all away, but there's some, there's some live animals involved story.

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Angelo Esposito [00:24:15]:

Yeah, I don't want to give it away either, but I'm like, I want to know this story.

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Christin Marvin [00:24:18]:

Yeah. So it's pretty fun.

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Angelo Esposito [00:24:19]:

That's awesome.

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Christin Marvin [00:24:20]:

And so the, the thing I love about the book is you can pick this up multiple times at no matter what stage in your career that you're in. If you're a line cook, figuring out what the industry could look like for you, how to develop yourself, if you're a GM AGM regional managing partner, it's all there for you. The book is available as an ebook, print and audiobook if you want to hear me talk for three and a half hours. And it's available on. Yeah. Christinmarvin.com book or Amazon.

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Angelo Esposito [00:24:50]:

That's amazing. So the Hospitality Leaders roadmap. And it's, it's funny because even just the idea of a roadmap in the industry is like, it's obvious in other industries. But I do think when it comes to hostility, it's getting more obvious. But it's like it's so far back. And what I mean by that is if you're, I don't know, becoming an accountant, it's like a very clear path. And you go to school and you do. And you know, you get.

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Angelo Esposito [00:25:12]:

Depending where you live, you get your license and you start, you know, internship and you do X amount of hours. Hours. And it's a very structured. But hospitality for the longest time was like, you just work hard and maybe one day you'll be a manager. And that's like, that, that's the extent of like, you know, hospitality roadmap. It's like, work hard and be a manager like there was nothing else. But I think that's a super exciting part, is understanding like, like you said, whether you're a line cook, whether you're starting off as a busboy, whatever, there Actually is different paths. And I think in general, hospitality is finally starting to get the respect it deserves because these, you know, for the longest time, I think hospitality was viewed as like the job before the job, you know, like, oh, I'm doing this for now as I look for a real job, you know, but a real quote unquote job.

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Angelo Esposito [00:25:53]:

But now people, I think over the last few years shifted to realize, like, wait, hospitality is a real job and there could be a roadmap. So for everyone listing the hospitality leaders roadmap, we're going to link it here. We'll put in the links you mentioned. So your website, the Amazon. So it'll be here in the podcast notes for people to, to buy.

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Christin Marvin [00:26:14]:

Awesome. Thank you, I appreciate it.

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Angelo Esposito [00:26:16]:

No, for sure, for sure. So that's one medium. So I love that. I know you have a podcast. So. So for people who obviously want to learn about leadership in the hospitality space, they got your book as one option. Well, they got multiple options. An option number two, from what I hear is the podcast.

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Angelo Esposito [00:26:32]:

So let's chat a bit about that. Tell me about your podcast. Tell me what it's about where people can find it.

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Christin Marvin [00:26:37]:

Yeah, absolutely. So it's called no Hesitations. It's kind of an ode to Anthony Bourdain, where I was playing off that no reservation title. It's a restaurant. Yeah, it's a restaurant leadership podcast. So it really teaches restaurateurs how to be world class operators. I do the combination of three different styles of episodes. So I do interviews and with, you know, and we're going to interview right after this to offer resources and ways to think outside the box or challenge the old way of doing things.

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Christin Marvin [00:27:04]:

I do interviews with successful restaurateurs that talk about their challenges and how they've been able to build over the years and their structures with management and their leadership challenges. And then I do coaching episodes so that people can see in real time what coaching is and gather their own moments of insight from watching somebody else be coached. And then I offer some leadership development episodes on there too, that are short, sweet, quick little takeaways that you can listen to. When I started, I don't know if this is true for you, but when I started podcasting, I was like, I hate myself on video and I hate my voice. And you know, Gary Vee's like, just get out there, just do it. It doesn't have to be perfect. Da, da, da, da. So we're about 60 episodes in.

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Angelo Esposito [00:27:45]:

Amazing.

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Christin Marvin [00:27:46]:

Grateful for it. And it just challenges me to get out in front and to be uncomfortable and to immediately take some. A pain point that I'm hearing from clients or conversations like with you in the industry and go, oh, there's some value here. Let me get this out. So I love how easy it is. I love that it provides something really intimate for people. If they, they don't want to be boastful or don't want to put out there that they're looking for leadership development, they can, you know, I can just be in their ear in the car. Right.

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Christin Marvin [00:28:21]:

And it doesn't have to be something that's additional or on top of their busy schedule. It can just really fit right into their lifestyle, which I love.

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Angelo Esposito [00:28:28]:

Yeah, I love that. I love that. And, and like I said, I think what's super interesting about the hospitality space and you know, it's in general, it's, it's always been kind of like, you know, late to adopt things. And it's for true for technology, like systems, the inventory and POS's and reservation systems. Sure. But it's also true for things like this, like, just like leadership and growth and having a road map. And so it's, it's funny because it's, it's such an old industry, but it's also like, slow to adopt. And so, like, I always joke around, like, when you think about the tech side, it's like the coolest.

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Angelo Esposito [00:29:02]:

It's, it's changed a bit in the last few years because, like, post Covid, I feel like things accelerated. But in general, if you think about it, it's like the coolest tech that came into restaurants was like reservation systems. It was like, wow. And then after that it was like iPads. The fact that you can use, I mean, it doesn't have to be an iPad, but the fact that you can use cloud POS systems, like, wow. You know, it's like. But. And I always found it funny that it's like, you know, we're like 10 years behind every other industry.

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Angelo Esposito [00:29:25]:

I feel like the last few years, like, things have gone crazy and maybe like, you know, now there's ordering systems and this and that and kiosk and like, things really, like everything just exploded. But in general, I found restaurants and hospitality in general was just kind of last to the party. And so it's really cool that finally it's getting the attention and love they deserve, especially when it comes to leadership and growth paths in the industry, which I think it's super, super neat. That's awesome. So, book podcast, I know you mentioned newsletter. So since we're on the topic. Might as well do a quick plug right there. So newsletter wise, how can people sign up to newsletter and what type of cadence content can they expect from the newsletter?

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Christin Marvin [00:30:03]:

Yeah, so once a week I publish the newsletter on LinkedIn. If you want to follow me at Christin Marvin or you can find the same blog on my website@kristinmarvin.com blog um, same thing. Quick and easy. Try to keep it under 500 words. A one to two minute read, sometimes three. It'll tell you, you know, diff. I highlight different leadership topics. I talk a lot about mental fitness and positive intelligence.

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Christin Marvin [00:30:25]:

Again, how to manage your negative thoughts, relieve your stress, lower your anxiety, your frustration, think differently about what you're doing. And there's also a lot of content in there about upcoming promotions that I have, whether it's a leadership workshop or the book coming out or there's episodes to the podcast in there too. So it's just a really cool pool of resources. Again, depending on how people want to learn and which direction they want to go.

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Angelo Esposito [00:30:51]:

I love that, I love that it's having different, I think channels and mediums gives people a chance to, you know, ingest it the way they want to. Which is, which is awesome. Kind of switching gears. I always like to understand, like, what's your outlook on, you know, where the industry is heading? So, you know, it's a bit of a loaded question, but what hospitality trends are you currently seeing when it comes to, you know, the restaurant industry? Like anything you want to call out.

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Christin Marvin [00:31:17]:

I was in Denver. I have a wonderful community of people on LinkedIn that I started connecting with two years ago to build the business because I was really scared that starting a business in hospitality but not working in the industry, I was really scared of how I was going to stay connected. And this community through LinkedIn has been great. LinkedIn obviously provide you a ton of daily content. I was just reading about Starbucks sales being down for three quarters straight and what McDonald's is going through right now. And last night I told my husband, Starbucks is in trouble. Like, shit's getting real right now. Shit's getting real.

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Christin Marvin [00:31:54]:

We went to Denver last week for book launch and I've had a lot of conversations. I've got a lot of clients in Denver and across the nation. But we, I went downtown and I was walking around and I visited some of the locations of restaurants that I'd opened 2007, 2012 and I saw the traffic that was just down. People are just not in restaurants. Monday afternoon, 12 o'clock, when downtown used to be booming and lunch traffic used to be huge and restaurants are maybe a quarter or third of the way full and the in full service and the energy, you know, especially inside Union Station that was also always bustling, was just stagnant. And it was. It like I. To read about it and to have conversations about it is one thing, but to feel it, oh my God, it was very emotional.

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Christin Marvin [00:32:44]:

I have clients that are really doing well from a full service perspective in the ice cream world, in the food hall space, in the spaces where convenience is prioritized and the quick grab and go is there, and the online ordering is there and the marketing is there from the social media aspect and the community focus is there. If you're not doing that all these days, if you're not intentional about your. How you are executing every single aspect of your business and if you're not taking care of your people right now, it is very unlikely that you're going to be successful. I know people that are in good areas that are closing their doors because they cannot get people in the business. I think customers are really being careful about where they're spending their money. And I was thinking about this this morning. My husband and I used to go out to eat four to five nights a week when he was selling wine and I was in the restaurant space and we had consistent income flowing in. Now we maybe do takeout once a week.

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Angelo Esposito [00:33:50]:

Wow.

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Christin Marvin [00:33:50]:

Okay, so. And it's. It's financial. It's. It's really financial. You know, when I'm in a restaurant, I'm looking at the cleanliness, I'm looking at the service. I'm looking at if there's any sort of connection or hospitality there. And the quality of the food for me is the last.

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Christin Marvin [00:34:05]:

I want if all that experience, interesting experiential stuff is there. I've always believed the service is more important than the food. I'll go back if somebody's trying to make a connection with me, even if it's a convenience store place, you've got the opportunity to use my name because you've got my credit card or I'm on the app or whatever. Whatever. If you don't take that opportunity, you've got one shot with me. And I think a lot of people are like that these days.

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Angelo Esposito [00:34:28]:

Yeah, that's fair. It's funny, like I. I'm all about services as well, in the sense that, like, I've gone back to restaurants that messed up and the food was a bit cold because the service was so good and they were fair about it and they apologetic and they made things right. It's like, oh, yeah, I'll come back. I get it. Things happen. All right. I'll also admit that I'm guilty, that if there is, you know, similar to, I don't know if you watch Cycle Seinfeld but, you know, Soup Kitchen episode or no, super like if I find a spa like that or like I'm going just for the foods or like, I'll go back, I'll go back there too.

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Angelo Esposito [00:34:59]:

But I know what you mean, generally speaking, like for sure. Services King and I want to highlight what you said about like the busy areas especially, you know, a lot of the downtown cores. I live in Miami. And so Miami has been, I mean Miami has different issues and summers here not is the off season. So like people are dying and closing restaurants in summertime here and whatnot. And then things pick up October till like, I don't know, March maybe. But that aside, I actually grew up in Montreal and I spent a couple years in Toronto. And even, you know, if I think about those downtown cores during COVID and then post Covid to your point, I'll just to echo it, it never got back.

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Angelo Esposito [00:35:35]:

And to this day, so many professionals are still working from home and you have friends in the industry that used to rely on the law office and you know, working out of like towers and food courts. And now it's like they can't justify the rent and this and that because they're like you said, 25% capacity, 30% capacity now. And so it's interesting to see like what's going to happen with these downtown cores that generally were, you know, high volume, quick service, et cetera. And I'm curious to get your take. Where do you see this going? Do you think there'll be kind of a change in the downtown cores or do you think it'll be more a change in the general industry and there'll be just more kind of suburb restaurants opening up and winning? Like, where do you see things going?

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Christin Marvin [00:36:15]:

Yeah, it's interesting in Denver specifically, the airport is exploding right now, now with independent restaurants. There's so much construction happening and there's one restaurant operator that went there about 10 years ago and they just crush. And I'm so happy to see DIA honoring independent. So people are flooding to wait two to five years to get into the restaurant because it is just. And so many people are traveling right now.

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Angelo Esposito [00:36:39]:

Right.

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Christin Marvin [00:36:39]:

So that's a really interesting shift and I hope other airports take note of that and help restaurants get in that Space.

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Angelo Esposito [00:36:46]:

That's cool.

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Christin Marvin [00:36:47]:

I don't know that downtown is going to bounce back for quite a bit. You know, we get lucky if a sports team does really well. And again, it's still seasonal, right? Everything is seasonal. It always will be. It doesn't matter if you're in Denver or you're in Tucson or you're in Miami. People have got to get really great at operating seasonal businesses. I think food halls and entertainment spaces are continuing to explode. I've got a friend that's got a golf simulator bar and they are just crushing it right now.

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Christin Marvin [00:37:13]:

Again, coming off of golf season season. I think that the neighborhoods are going to continue to be really, really successful. People don't want to drive as far they. They love their little communities that they've built. Their lifestyles have changed so much, I think, from working from home, too. Right. Going out is such a different experience now and super special. And so I think those areas that really, in the cities that really continue to invest in their neighborhoods and supporting restaurants are going to do well.

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Christin Marvin [00:37:41]:

But I think it also depends on where you live. You know, Denver's minimum wage is going up to 19 an hour in January.

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Angelo Esposito [00:37:47]:

Wow.

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Christin Marvin [00:37:48]:

And people are starting to pull out of there and go to much cheaper places. So. Yeah, every single market is so different. Yeah.

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Angelo Esposito [00:37:57]:

That's rough. Yeah, that's really tough. Oh, man. It's like. Like we spoke at the beginning of the episode, right? It's. It's a very tough industry. That's why I have so much respect for. For restaurateurs, because so many things have to go right.

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Angelo Esposito [00:38:10]:

Literally, like, it's. It's an. It's a master class in running a business because you have to do everything a business has to do. But like I said, from the easy to hard scale, everything's hard. So it's like really marketing, but it's harder than average because you got to get people in the door and buying. It's inventory, but inventory is harder because it's perishable goods. And everything just becomes hard. Even.

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Angelo Esposito [00:38:28]:

Even training and staff. It's harder because of, like you said, minimum wages, but also just the fact that there's so much staff turnover. Right. Like, so it's. It's restarting every single time.

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Christin Marvin [00:38:37]:

Time. Yeah.

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Angelo Esposito [00:38:37]:

What's next for you? You know, as we kind of wrap up, I'd love to understand, like, obviously you got the book out, you got your podcast, got the newsletter, you're taking on clients, you're helping the industry, which I love. Coaching and keynotes about leadership and in the hospitality space. Anything you want to highlight, I want to give you kind of the floor, just a chance to plug anything maybe we missed and really just kind of highlight what's next for. For you and, and for, you know, solutions like, you know.

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Christin Marvin [00:39:03]:

Yeah.

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Angelo Esposito [00:39:04]:

Solutions by Christin.

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Christin Marvin [00:39:05]:

Excuse me. That's okay. There are 10 variations of my name, so I'm used to it. You know, this next year for me is really going to be doubling down on everything that I've built. I've spent the last two years in build mode and. Okay, like a restaurateur, I've got to figure out with all these revenue streams that I've created now, how to continue to cultivate them so I don't spread myself too thick in as a solopreneur. Yeah, the next year is going to be about promoting the book and doing some speeches and doing some work leadership workshops and just you're always in business development mode, as you know. And for me, in this business, that means cultivating really strong relationships with people, and mostly that's in person.

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Christin Marvin [00:39:48]:

You know, Zoom has been one of the most incredible things that came out of the pandemic. And I'm so fortunate to be able to work with people on a national, international level. But cultivating those relationships and offering that continued support and helping this industry be sustainable is really what this is all about for me. So I've got to figure out how I can continue to offer the best value possible to people in the industry.

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Angelo Esposito [00:40:16]:

As you were saying, all these things. One thing that came to mind, we have a newsletter we push out, so we'll definitely help you kind of promote the book. And I think what would be interesting is, you know, I'm super passionate about, you know, just helping restaurants in general, even if it's not, you know, cost of goods related. This is part of the reason we do the podcast, is to try to give ideas from different leaders like yourselves. Whether it's leadership stuff or, I don't know, marketing stuff, really anything and everything. But I think one thing that I wanted to start doing was potentially even doing like a monthly webinar where it's a bit more tactical and we get, you know, an expert in the field. And so we'll talk more about that. But so for listeners, stay tuned.

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Angelo Esposito [00:40:54]:

But one thing we're thinking about the website is basically, let's say we host a leadership webinar. We'll figure out what that looks like. And it's like you're that special guest, or not even guest, but the expert on the topic and it's like 30, 40 minutes of, you know, putting you in front of our audience and just helping them with leadership advice. And of course there'll be opportunities to upsell and this and that, but the idea is like to give value no matter what, and then if a percentage want to go deeper, great. But if not, like, people are still happy they attended. And I think that's one thing I definitely want to do in 2025 is try to do like a monthly and very different topics that have nothing to do with wisc. So it could be leadership, it could be marketing, it could be really anything. Anything that will just help them run a better business, period.

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Christin Marvin [00:41:33]:

I love it. I'm here for it.

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Angelo Esposito [00:41:35]:

So stay tuned. Yeah, we'll figure something out. So, you know, Chris said, thank. Thanks for joining us. Honestly, this was great. I think, I think people will put all the links we spoke about. So your website, your LinkedIn, I know you got the LinkedIn newsletter that, you know, it takes two minutes to read. You got the Hospitality Leaders Roadmap, your new book that just came out.

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Angelo Esposito [00:41:53]:

You have more than enough resources, I think, to help people. So for our listeners, if you are looking to improve your leadership management in your restaurant and just grow and you maybe feel stuck, like, Christin's been there, you heard her story, and she's unstuck now. And so don't be shy to reach out. We're going to put all the links down there. So, Christin, with that said, once again, I want to thank you for being on the WISKing it all podcast. We appreciate you taking the time to share your story.

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Christin Marvin [00:42:19]:

Thank you so much for having me. I'll talk to you very soon.

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Angelo Esposito [00:42:22]:

If you want to learn more about wisk, head to WISK AI and book a demo.

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