231. The Three Scopes of Entrepreneurial Vision Will Transform Your Business w/ Antonio McBroom

Antonio McBroom shares his remarkable journey from ice cream scooper to building a $20 million business empire spanning dozens of Ben & Jerry's and Starbucks locations across the Southeast. His story demonstrates how mindset shifts and leadership development can transform humble beginnings into extraordinary business success.

• Started as an ice cream shop employee during college at UNC Chapel Hill
• Purchased his first Ben & Jerry's store two days before graduating in 2008
• Grew from single store to multi-unit operation, requiring crucial leadership transitions
• Developed "selfish servant leadership" philosophy prioritizing self-care to better serve others
• Created framework of three business "scopes" - microscope (present details), telescope (future vision), kaleidoscope (alternative perspectives)
• Identified mindset limitations as the biggest barrier to entrepreneurial success
• Compares mental barriers to "cattle guards" - restrictions we could step over but don't
• Recently published "The Selfish Servant" sharing business lessons and leadership principles
• Now focuses on speaking, coaching and expanding impact beyond daily operations

Find Antonio McBroom at AntonioMcBroom.com or PrimoPartners.com for speaking engagements and coaching services. His book "The Selfish Servant" is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and as an audiobook narrated by Antonio himself.

Chapters

• 0:00 Mindset Cafe Intro
• 20:44 Meeting Antonio McBroom

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Yeah, it's Mindset Cafe. We all about that mindset. Gotta stay focused. Now go settle for the last. It's all in your head how you think you manifest. So get ready to rise, cause we about to be the best. Gotta switch it up. Gotta break the old habits. Get your mind right. Turn your dreams into habits. No negative vibes, only positive thoughts.

Speaker 2: 0:20

What is up, guys? What is up? Welcome to another episode of the Mindset Cafe podcast. It's your boy, devin Gonzalez, and today we do have an entrepreneur elite, I would say he is. You know, have done. He's done some amazing things in his career already and I wanted to bring him on because there's, you know, not only his new book but also some of the things he talks about just in mindset in general, I think are really going to shape how you guys approach life and how you approach your business. But I wanted to welcome Antonio McBroom to the show. He is an entrepreneur. He has transformed his own life from being an ice cream scooper into building an impressive $20 million business empire. I don't want to give too much of all of his details, because when people give it themselves, I think you guys do too. So, without further, ado, antonio, thank you so much for coming on today.

Speaker 1: 1:11

Devin, it's a blessing to be here, happy to share and really proud of the work you're doing with Mindset Cafe.

Speaker 2: 1:17

Well, thank you so much, and so let's dive in. I mean, what was your background? I mean, I know, going from ice cream scooper, you like to say, to the $20 million business, but give us that journey. What was that journey like for you?

Speaker 1: 1:29

Oh, man, the journey you know so often as leaders and entrepreneurs we get so focused on when we get there.

Speaker 1: 1:36

When we get there, but the real treat and prize of everything for me was that journey. That journey started whenever I went to UNC Chapel Hill as a student and during orientation weekend I knew I needed to get a job for my family back at home while I was in college and I seen this cool ice cream store, always loved ice cream, one of my favorite foods we got to say in. A day without dessert is a disaster, so we eat dessert every day. There was an ice cream store that was hiring right there and, man, that was a job that really changed my life, because not only did I kind of scoop myself a college job, I really scooped myself a purpose in a career. And so from there, I bought the first store back in 2008, just two days before I graduated college from UNC. And since then it's just been a fun journey where I really look at the work that I'm doing in business and in franchising as really my classroom, that I can really empower leaders and make an impact in my communities.

Speaker 2: 2:33

No, I think that's so awesome and so did with your first story. Did you buy in as a franchisee or did you establish as a franchisor?

Speaker 1: 2:42

Yeah, I bought in as a franchisee, yep. So I ended up being the manager in my senior year of college and I started asking bold, crazy questions. You know, the craziest was what will it take for me to buy this business? Not one day or someday, but what will it take for me to buy it before the Sunday that I graduate this year? It takes for me to buy it before the Sunday that I graduate this year. And from there I learned the whole blueprint of what it takes to buy a franchise. And while some people laughed at me like how's a 21 year old going to buy a franchise before graduating college, I rolled up my sleeves, put together a business plan, went through the due diligence process of getting approvals from the landlord of the building to the franchisor, and just two days before graduation we were successful in doing it, and so that started my journey as a as a single unit franchise operator. I did that for three years, just really learned the craft, improved the business, ended up growing sales by four times over that three-year time period, and so that's when I was ready to step into the space of multi-unit, and so that became. It's kind of like children, you know, when you got one child, you could spoil it. You get all, get all the time, all the attention, all the resources. But going into multi-unit and having two stores, uh, was a whole different set of challenges. But it allowed me that chance to to really step up my leadership. As a single unit operator. It was pretty much me in there all the time and I had some high school and college students helping me part-time, but that was it.

Speaker 1: 4:15

Once I became multi-unit, I really needed to build the first leadership team. And having a leadership team I had a manager for each store. But I was able to make a little mathematical magic at that time because, while I had just two stores, I had the one that I originally bought in Chapel Hill and then the second one I bought in Greensboro, north Carolina. I had this third department, which was the special events and catering business. That was like a store in and of itself. So I had three different leaders and my job became to pour into them and help them with their growth, and I got so much joy and benefit out of just being able to lead leaders, and so we just made a habit of that for the past 17 years.

Speaker 1: 4:56

Our 17-year anniversary is actually this Friday. Devin, so 17 years ago, is when we took that step into the first store. But then we became multi-unit operators and purchased the second store and then, once we settled down with that, we ended up purchasing a third. And, just like with children, you know, one you can spoil it, two you can manage. Now once you get three, you've got to have a serious system.

Speaker 1: 5:17

Devin, it takes a village to raise that many franchise locations, that many franchise locations. And so we started really learning about you know how do we organize and streamline things and put processes in place. And from there it's been a fun but fast journey these past 17 years where the journey was really the prize, and we ended up scaling up to a couple of different, a couple dozen locations all across the Southeast and we do multiple brands now. So not only do we do Ben and Jerry's ice cream shops, we also operate Starbucks coffee cafes, which is fun in and of itself, whole different concept, but something that we have a whole lot of fun with with my company, primo.

Speaker 2: 5:58

I think that's awesome and I mean being a franchisor myself and seeing someone like yourself, you know, really excelling in the space. It is really nice to see and having that, not just the ambitious drive to start one but to go into two, like that's a mindset hurdle that not everyone can overcome, right. And so what was that mindset? What are some of the challenges? Because you have one and that's your baby, right, you know you're hands on. Like you said once. You have two. Now you can't be as hands on. You need to put managers in place. So what was that, that process for you? Like, you have to kind of get out of your own way dip case is what we call it in the ice cream game.

Speaker 1: 6:46

You know I was so used to just being hands-on, hands-in hands, wrapped around everything. The piece of giving up control and giving trust to someone else to take parts of the business was really hard at first and I embraced. This mantra that I learned at the time is you're not a true leader until you can create another leader who can create other leaders. And so I shift my focus from controlling everything and trying to squeeze the most out of the business to how do I really focus my time on the people, how do I lean in and really look to create growth opportunities for people like me? And by having that focus, the business results ended up being way better than I was I would ever thought, and it definitely was better than when I was trying to do everything myself. And so taking that, taking that step of just saying you know what, piece by piece, I'm going to trust somebody to do this even better than I ever did it. So I remember one of the first things I did was you know, we've been in Jerry's stores A lot of times. We have ice cream cakes. That's one of our departments and I'm a math major Devin, so I can barely write my name nevertheless be really good at decorating cakes. But it was one of those things I had to learn in this industry and I did an OK job with it. But I knew that there were people who were way more talented than me in that space and so I hired an ice cream cake decorator and just say you know what, this is your, this is your baby. And they were able to grow that part of the business remarkably.

Speaker 1: 8:19

And I started just going through things one by one. What is it that I really don't enjoy? I'm not that good at, because sometimes you'll find somebody who actually enjoys it and is really really good at it. And so I did that piece by piece. And then eventually, when I looked at just the operations of one of the stores, you know, hiring, hiring somebody who would would be laser focused on that one particular location so I could do multiple. That was kind of the game changer. The game with, you know, multiple locations and multi-unit is, you know you're only as good as your weakest link, and so for me I focus on that. Unit manager, almost like in the military. You know, unit by unit is how you build a strong army and in my business you know unit location by is how you build a strong army. In my business, you know unit location by unit location with a strong unit manager is really the key.

Speaker 2: 9:11

No, I completely agree, and you have to be able to. Essentially, if you are a true leader, your goal is to build other leaders you don't want to be. I've seen so many entrepreneurs, essentially, that they like being the person that everyone comes to. Every single employee has come to them, them has to get validation from them. It's like you want your team to have other stops in place so that the managers answer those questions, so that any problems or any questions that come to you are bigger questions, bigger problems. Otherwise, you know you should have trained or continue to train your managers to take that off your plate. Otherwise your day is just filled with chaos, unnecessary chaos. I mean unnecessary keyword.

Speaker 1: 9:49

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 9:50

Yeah, I mean, that's the thing I mean and and correct me if I'm wrong, but you know, people value entrepreneurship because they think they're getting time freedom. You know, like, essentially you're trading a nine to five, especially the beginning, for 24 7, right, and then they think it's like you open the doors and they will come, and it's like there is a lot more that goes behind the scenes and the number one factor is that there was all, there will always be, a little bit of chaos. There will always be a little bit of problems. You know obstacles, but you get stronger and you get better and overcoming those and that's just the name of the game the bigger obstacle you can overcome, the more money you tend to make because you're at a different level. Bingo bingo.

Speaker 1: 10:31

You've leveled it up all the way.

Speaker 2: 10:33

So I do want to ask you know, I know you have a book, you know and and everything like that. So I do want to talk about that and what self selfish servant leadership is.

Speaker 1: 10:42

Yeah. So I'm so excited to share with the world a little bit of my story and some of the lessons that I've learned. So, as I mentioned the 17 year journey I've been on, I want to share some of the best things I've learned, some of the failures that I've had, so that the next entrepreneur maybe can take it to an even higher level and even faster. And so the Self-ish Servant is a memoir slash business leadership development book that I put kind of chapter by chapter, my journey and I walk you through it from even before I got to college to my time as a scooper, to buying that first store and giving some of the key things needed there to just propel it even beyond that and even into the real estate world.

Speaker 1: 11:29

So the key thing about the selfish servant that is really unique is it encourages people to be selfish, and by selfish I don't mean the selfish we all learn. You know, as toddlers, where your first word might be mine. You know it's a different kind of selfish. It's an elevated self-ish. You know being being self-aware and self-confident with a plan for self-improvement. It's spending the time needed each day, week, month and year to just be self-ish so that you show up as your best self, so you can go and servant lead others. And so this selfish servant is taking these kind of normal opposite ideas of being selfish and being a servant and really putting them together in a framework for future leaders and entrepreneurs.

Speaker 2: 12:15

No, I love that because it kind of ties into the mindset or the understanding of that you have to be a degree of selfish so that you can be selfless. Right, like you, you got to be able to continue to fill up your cup so that it overfills into others and you're not pouring from your cup, kind of deal.

Speaker 1: 12:35

Yeah, devin, I don't know about you, man, but I find myself on airplanes a lot, and you know one of the announcements they do before every flight in case of an emergency, put your oxygen mask on first before trying to assist others, right, and it's just kind of a common sense thing. You want to. You know, we, as leaders, want to live a life of service and want to pour into others and, but at the end of the day, pour into others, but at the end of the day, if we don't at first have our oxygen mask on, we will burn out and we won't be able to be the leaders that we're capable of. And so that's what I really push myself, I push my team on is what are we capable of? And if you take the outlook of, in order to do what I'm truly capable of and have the impact that we're capable of?

Speaker 2: 13:23

we've got to be our best self. No, I completely agree and I love that analogy. I'm huge on analogies because it gets people to understand from different point of view and majority of people have been on at least one airplane in their life and kind of know that understanding, so I love that. One thing I do want to cover with that being said is like you have leadership but you've grown in an established not just one business right but essentially a full on second lane of of the food industry and the franchising with you know Starbucks and you said the real estate and so forth. So one thing I know you've talked about in the past is essentially your three scopes on business, right From microscopes, telescopes and the kaleidoscopes, and can you explain what those are and their roles in business?

Speaker 1: 14:11

Yeah, yeah, I think focus is Australian business. You know the ability to just focus in that's focusing. But there are different types of focus. You know you've got this piece of what I do a lot of as visionary CEO of my company. I'm oftentimes looking far in the future. So I'm looking out of a telescope right, I'm looking down the road as to what are some opportunities, challenges. We need to be aware, you know, 18, 24 months from now. So that's that telescope piece.

Speaker 1: 14:48

From there you've got kind of microscope focus, where it's up close and personal. It's it's, you know, kind of right here, right now. How focused am I on the stuff that's in front of us? The present day issues up close and personal. And then the kaleidoscope focuses a whole different spin on it. You know a kaleidoscope is an instrument that just kind of bends and reflects light and allows you to take a whole different vantage point on things, so kind of rise above, take a whole different spin and look at things from a totally different angle or lens. And so through those three different types of focus, I feel like us as leaders are able to have the best strategy while also execute simultaneously.

Speaker 2: 15:32

So do you think that the three scopes needs to be like? Do you have all three scopes or do you think that there's certain people that should have a better focus on one of the scopes?

Speaker 1: 15:45

Yeah, I think in your given role excuse me, in your given role and as an individual, you'll tend to have a skill, set or strength with one of those that I just described. I mean, I've got some leaders that are so technical. You know, this kind of microscope focus is a technical type of focus. It's almost like if you were in a knife fight, right. Being in a knife fight, you've got to be very present, you've got to be reacting to the moves as they happen, like you can't be thinking about what you're going to eat for dinner. It's right here right now.

Speaker 1: 16:21

And some people that is their absolute skill in knowing that, identifying that that's part of the selfish part Right, get to where you're selfish and self-aware enough to know.

Speaker 1: 16:35

This is what I'm really good at. So as we assemble a team, we've got to have some of those really tactical superstars on the team, while at the same time, as I share with myself I'm more of a long range thinker of a telescope type of focus and having folks in the building that that's what they do and knowing that you know you need to be able to switch. So building a skill so that you can switch from different types of focus is important for all leaders, but I'm a strengths based leader. The way that I and my team have grown is we lean into our strengths and what we're good at as an organization, but also as individuals, and so it's important to know and be aware of what your strength is. So you do that more and more and more, while at the same time, you know, figure out ways to surround yourself with folks who are good at things you're not good at, and also build your skills and knows a little bit.

Speaker 2: 17:24

No, I think that is so important and especially as, like the leader of leaders Right, you know, being the CEO and being the head, the head boss like you, have to have the ability, in my opinion at least, to understand all three scopes. Right, like your, your strength, as well as mine, is that, like telescope view. But I, what I want to like kind of hone in on too, is that if you don't have the ability to have a microscope lens or the kaleidoscope lens, you kind of hurt your, your team and your business as well, because you're always focused on the next, the next and next, and it's like sometimes you got to hold on. I see the next, but we got to help focus this right here. Or, and same thing with you know, the Kaleidoscope is like, if you're always looking at just changing and changing and changing and not just looking in a linear path at any given point, you know you kind of stunt your growth. Like what would you? How do you feel about that?

Speaker 1: 18:18

Yeah, and I think that it's important to create the environments for using these different scopes, you know. So we have a. We have a weekly standing meeting with my team. That that's really like a microscope type meeting. It's week by week. You know what's the main stuff that's happening, what are we focused on and what's what are we doing this coming week? How do we align on it? We're focused on right now.

Speaker 1: 18:42

Then every 90 days, we have a quarterly meeting which is really like a telescope. It's like let's take a look at this particular quarter, the 90 days in front of us. What are we focused on? What's happening between now and the end of June? And then, annually, we do a two-day retreat which is almost like a kaleidoscope type. And then, annually, we do a two-day retreat which is almost like a kaleidoscope type of meeting.

Speaker 1: 19:04

You know, this is a two-day retreat where we're really looking at things from a from a whole different lens. Let's, let's, kind of let's, let's, let's, let's. You know, throw out all the rules, all the barriers, and let's think about things from a whole different lens. This is where we'll come up with some crazy ideas like hey, we've been doing really good with ice cream stores, let's try a coffee cafe or just taking a whole different spin on things. And I'll give you a little dose of something I've been working on lately.

Speaker 1: 19:33

As I add to this scope lens, which is there's another one that I'm starting to see is really important as we continue to navigate the growth waters as a business and it's a periscope. So a periscope is a scope that kind of goes undetected, it's kind of beneath the water and it's just a little scope that kind of goes low-key undetected. And so we heard it here first on the Mindset Cafe. But as I continue to refine the tools that have made my company, primo, be able to be successful the way we have, these are the different ways that I've utilized these analogies, as you mentioned, devin and translated into real world business practices.

Speaker 2: 20:15

No, I love that. And before you give the definition, I was trying to think I was like I've heard the word Periscope before and I was like wait, what the heck is a Periscope? So that does make a lot of sense and I like that. And again, one creating like the symbolism and the analogies between all of it makes it understandable, right, and I think that's awesome in business.

Speaker 2: 20:41

But your ability to even explain how you do each of the scopes from the team meetings you know the retreats and how that can shift an organization, I think is actually huge. Cause if you only have team meetings, let's say in in the business or on zoom, like there is a dynamic, there is a field, there is a flow to it, but the lens always kind of stays the same. So taking them out and kind of giving that change of scenery, change of place, also has the ability to create, you know creativity with that kaleidoscope one. So I do like that. That's, that's unique. I mean that's the first time I've heard, heard that, to be honest. So I think that's amazing. One of the things to kind of tying the, the different scopes with the selfish servant leadership. Essentially, what do you think are some of the limiting factors with entrepreneurs or with people starting their business that is stunting them essentially from reaching a level like yourself.

Speaker 1: 21:34

The name of this podcast, mindset. Mindset is the biggest limitation. I just finished building a pool in my backyard Home. I've been in seven years and for five of those seven years my mindset was property line was really close to the house and there were trees everywhere and I had a bad slope and there was no way I could ever have a good backyard. Because my mindset was and someone had told me in error that my property line was right outside of my door, and I just so happened to to to be thinking differently one day where I was outside with someone, one of my friends and everybody. Well, what if your property line wasn't right here? What would you do? And I started telling them I mean big ideas I would do, man, I'd have a basketball court out here and we put pickleball my wife loves pickleballs, we do some pickleball for her and we could do a hot tub with a fire pit and all these big dreams. And the person pulled out an app on their phone and it's almost like this little survey app. It's called Land Glide and it shows you where you are in relation to the property lines on the property. He said, man, we're barely in the middle of your property line right now. So everything you just mentioned to me you can actually do Now apply that to business and to life in general, and I think that the majority of people walk around 90% of the time with these mindset limitations and barriers.

Speaker 1: 23:10

In the book I call them cattle guards. It's an old trick that folks used in the early days to control livestock, where instead of building a fence, which is expensive, what they would do is they would just put holes in the ground and so when a baby calf is born it won't walk, but so far it'll get stuck in that hole. The baby calf grows into be a raging bull that could just walk right over that hole easily, but in its mind it won't go that far because there's a imaginary fence right there. I think that mindset piece is the biggest limiting factor that stops the entrepreneurial community from being great.

Speaker 2: 23:52

I agree 1000%. And the cattle garden thing is definitely an interesting approach to it too, and I think almost like newer entrepreneurs coming in, being that young calf, right, and you know other bulls or other or other you know cattle basically kind of directing you too for not falling in that hole, not really realizing that they could have stepped over at any point. So maybe you never fell in the hole but you never got a chance to see if you could step over because someone else told you that they couldn't do it right. And and that's the biggest thing is too is like I mean you have to. I mentors and coaches are amazing. I mean I use them, I have them. But at the same time, my belief is always like you have to take it with a grain of salt too and realize that reality is also perspective, and so the reality of it working or not working for them is also their perspective on what happened at that given moment for them. There's a number of X factors, so you have to think about it for a minute and be like, well, I do see why, but what if? And then you start to throw in some and then you might be able to still try Right, and I think that's just a huge component to why entrepreneurs are still able to be successful and every business is still not the same as the next, right? So I think that that's an awesome analogy.

Speaker 2: 25:14

Um, I mean, what do you have going on next for you? You got the. You know numerous amounts of stores. You know, um. You said real estate you're getting into. You got a book going on, um, but what's what's next for Primo? What's next for you?

Speaker 1: 25:27

This is next. You know, being able to share our story and impact more and more people and leaders across our country is the key. You know the business that we built. I've got an amazing team and they run it so much so that it allows me the time to start to really focus on our impact at a larger scale. And so you can find more information at AntonioMcBroomcom or PrimoPartnerscom around ways that you can engage with me. We do keynote speaking at conferences or big events, where our message will really resonate with folks. We also have coaching and consulting services and obviously the Selfish Servant book is an easy way that anyone can engage with me and learn more about the story and the journey. So you can find Selfish Servant online it's an audio book I narrate as well as Barnes, noble and Amazon.

Speaker 2: 26:19

Perfect. And then, before I let you go real quick, I'd like to ask one final question, right, and this is the legacy wall question. So, on Antonio McBroom's legacy wall, from your life's journey, what would be the lasting message that you leave for the up and coming generations?

Speaker 1: 26:37

That's a strong one. I love that question, the lasting message I'd want to leave for the up and coming generations that I think time and time again it requires leaders to ask themselves is what are we capable of?

Speaker 2: 27:03

I love that. I mean, that's, that's all. It is Right. And leaders, non-leaders like what are you capable of? And I guarantee that you're capable of more than you think that you're capable of. So I love I, honestly that's. That's an awesome legacy wall one. But where can I know you? You mentioned where people can reach out. Do you have any social media links that you know you're more present on? If someone wanted to you know, kind of just see what you got going on.

Speaker 1: 27:21

Yeah, linkedin. Linkedin Antonio McBroom, as well as on Instagram.

Speaker 2: 27:27

Perfect and that would be in the show notes, guys. But make sure you guys share this episode with a friend and make sure you guys go check out his book. Both of those links will be in the description, whether you're watching on YouTube or are listening to on any of your favorite podcast platforms. But, antonio, thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy day to hop on and drop some knowledge.

Speaker 1: 27:48

Devin. Blessings, man. Thank you for all that you're doing, bro, Of course.