Kat Cole, President and COO of FOCUS Brands: “I’ve had my team put in jail.”

Kat Cole started her career as a waitress at Hooters. At first, she was just helping out her family. But in her second year of college, she decided to turn that side hustle...into her main hustle. So she went to work at Hooters corporate instead of graduating. And at 20 years old, she was helping the company open franchises all over the world. A couple years later, Kat became a VP at the company. Eventually, she got a business degree and took over at Cinnabon, where she helped grow the biz to a billion-dollar brand. Now she’s the President and COO of FOCUS brands, aka the parent co of companies like Cinnabon and Auntie Anne’s Pretzels. On the couch, she talks to us about addressing negative feedback, choosing to go to business school without a BA, and “the brutal leadership mirror”. We’ll let her explain.

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