710: Kyle Noonan on Helping Others is the Heart of Hospitality

College friends and FreeRange Concepts' founders, Kyle Noonan and Josh Sepkowitz have a combined 22 years of experience in the restaurant and hospitality industry, including hospitality management, operations, acquisitions, divestitures and new store openings for multi-million dollar concepts.

It was 2010 when the pair decided to go into business together. After 2 years of planning and with only $50,000 they bootstrapped their first concept, Bowl & Barrel. 7 years later the duo has scaled into 10 total locations consisting of 4 unique concepts with the addition of Mutts Canine Cantina, The Rustic, and The General Public.

Kyles first episode was 598.

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Favorite success quote or mantra:

• "If you help other people get what they want, you will get what you want."

In today's episode with Kyle Noonan we will discuss:

• Helping others is the heart of hospitality
• FRC generally opens 2-3 very large restaurants per year, employing hundreds of people
• Being first to market on a concept
• Mutts Canine Cantina was a brand new concept taking 5 years to fine-tune and develop it fully
• Membership models for restaurants
• FreeRange Concepts is all about "experiences" in their spaces
• FRC had no take-out model prior to COVID
• How do you create an experience with take-out
• The best to-go items are items that are good as leftovers
• Changing your menu to fit take-out while sticking to your brand
• The smart and savvy will survive and thrive

Today's sponsor:

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Knowledge bombs

1. Which "it factor" habit, trait, or characteristic you believe most contributes to your success?
   • Desire to take care of people
2. What is your biggest weakness?
   • Fearless, a little too fearless
3. What's one question you ask or thing you look for during an interview?
   • A sense of hospitality
4. What's a current challenge? How are you dealing with it?
   • Not knowing what the future holds
5. Share one code of conduct or behavior you teach your team.
   • Take care of the person next to you
6. What is one uncommon standard of service you teach your staff?
   • Create remarkable memories
7. What's one book we must read to become a better person or restaurant owner?
   • the Bible 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?
   • Listen to their consumer
9. Name one service you've hired
   • Champion Management PR Firm
10. What's one piece of technology you've adopted within your restaurant walls and how has it influence operations?
    • Tablee buzzers for tables connected to servers and managers
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?
    • Take care of other people
    • Do your absolute best
    • Smile

Contact info:

FreeRange Concepts website

Instagram: @kylenoonan @muttscantina @therusticdallas @thegenpublic @bowlandbarrel

Facebook: Kyle Noonan

Twitter: @kylenoonan

Thanks for listening!

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Huge thanks to Kyle Noonan for joining me for another awesome episode. Until next time!

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