From Katrina’s Aftermath to Industry Innovation: Resilience, Community, and Reinventing the Restaurant Model ft. Ron Ladner (Shaggy’s)

In this episode of The Resilience Report, host Lauren Scott sits down with Ron Ladner, founder of the iconic waterfront restaurant Shaggy’s — a business born unexpectedly out of the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. What began as a mission to restore hope to a shattered community has since grown into one of the Gulf Coast’s most resilient and people-centered restaurant brands.

Ron shares how Shaggy’s transformed the traditional hospitality model by putting culture, community, and long-term sustainability at the heart of the business. He reveals why employee happiness is the foundation of profitability, how his team-service model is reshaping industry norms, and the surprising ways a restaurant can drive measurable social impact.

Whether you’re an entrepreneur, hospitality leader, or business owner seeking fresh ideas for growth and resilience, this conversation offers powerful insights on sustainable leadership, organizational culture, and building companies that thrive — even in times of crisis.

Topics covered include:

• Rebuilding a business and community after catastrophe
• Sustainable leadership and people-first culture
• Rethinking the restaurant model for long-term success
• Employee retention and operational efficiency
• Community engagement and coastal conservation
• Growth strategies in a challenging economic climate

Learn more about Ron's work here: https://ronladner.com/

#ResilienceReport, #RonLadner, #ShaggysRestaurant, #RestaurantSuccess, #RestaurantLeadership, #RestaurantOwners, #HospitalityIndustry, #RestaurantLife, #CommunityDrivenDining, #WaterfrontDining, #CommunityImpact

Transcript

Today’s episode of The Resilience Report is one you’re going to remember.

What happens when a community is devastated, the local economy collapses overnight, and the future feels impossible to imagine? Our guest didn’t just rebuild his own life — he helped rebuild an entire coastline. When Hurricane Katrina leveled his town, Ron Ladner made a decision most people would have run from: he opened a restaurant. Not for profit, not for prestige — but to restore hope.

That restaurant became Shaggy’s, now one of the most beloved waterfront brands on the Gulf Coast. And what Ron built wasn't just a business. It was a blueprint for resilience, for sustainable leadership, and for putting people before profit — all while achieving long-term success in one of the toughest industries.

If you care about building organizations that last, uplifting communities, strengthening teams, and designing business models that thrive even in uncertain times… this conversation will challenge the way you think and inspire you to lead differently.

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[Host: Lauren Scott] Welcome back to another episode of The Resilience Report. Over the past two and a half years, so much of our focus has been on different stories of resilience—specifically from businesses and leaders who are trying to find better ways to approach business. Sometimes resilience is a choice, and sometimes it’s a necessity, and in those moments, some of the best leaders and businesses come forward. Our next guest is the perfect example of that. So with that, welcome to the show, Ron. 

[Guest: Ron Ladner] How are you doing?

You have such a unique story, and I would love to start off at the very top by giving our listeners a bit of background on how your story with Shaggy’s began. Twenty years ago, when the world was watching Hurricane Katrina unfold, most of us would have thought that starting a business was the last thing someone would do. And yet that moment became such an important part of your story. Could you share a little bit about that with our listeners?

At that point in my life, the last thing I needed or wanted was to start a restaurant. But we literally went through the eye of Katrina and our entire town was flattened. There was nothing left. Houses were more than eighty percent destroyed. It was a massive rebuilding effort. We decided to stay and do whatever we could to use our talents and resources to help build back.

As we went through that, I noticed people were drained emotionally and mentally. Folks had lost hope—they couldn’t see the other side. And all the gathering spots were gone. No restaurants, no parks, no clubs, no places for people to emotionally reconnect. It was taking a toll on the whole community.

So we came up with this crazy idea: let’s open a waterfront restaurant with the sole intention of bringing hope back to the town and giving people their spirits back. We didn’t build the business around making a profit. We built it around bringing back sanity.

And it worked. It was incredibly successful—five times the revenue I projected. Fast-forward twenty years, and we’ve kept that mission: create a restaurant that brings sanity to people in a messy world. Our mission is that when someone walks through the door, they leave happier and feeling better about themselves. When you focus on what matters, instead of profit, success follows.

I’d love to dig into that a bit more, because I’m sure setting up a business and opening a restaurant wasn’t on your “bingo card” after Katrina. Yet fast-forward twenty years, and the restaurant is thriving. What lessons from that time have you carried into how you run the business today?

The biggest lesson is to focus on the right things. Businesses often get caught up in what doesn’t matter. If you focus on making money, you lose focus on how to make money. We flipped the script. We focused on taking care of our employees first, because if we want our guests to leave happier, the employee serving them must be happy too.

In the restaurant industry, the average employee tenure is seventy-five days. For us, full-time staff average three years. That’s because we focus on them. And when you get that right, the rest follows.

Your model is really different from traditional restaurants, especially around compensation and sustainability. For those listening who run restaurants or are in similar industries, how have you balanced offering fair wages with maintaining a financially sustainable business?

We re-engineered how we serve our guests. People in this industry tend to believe that the way it’s always been done is the only way. We challenged that. We adopted new technology, evaluated literal steps taken, looked at wasted time.

After COVID, we introduced a major overhaul: a team-service model instead of fragmented individual service. Half our staff quit. But those who stayed realized we were doing more with fewer people, guests were happier, and everyone was making more money.

In our book, I point out that a cheeseburger was ten dollars seventeen years ago and fourteen dollars today—a forty percent increase. But beef prices went up two hundred fifty percent. To survive, you either become more efficient or charge twenty-five dollars for a cheeseburger. We chose efficiency. The team-service model was the biggest move.

We’re not a gypsy culture. We provide careers—insurance, a 401(k). If you keep someone a year instead of seventy-five days, you don’t need ten people to do a job; you need six. That changes everything.

You mentioned this idea had been brewing pre-pandemic but the timing wasn’t right. How did you arrive at this new model? Was it trial and error, or did you have outside support?

My background is in software, where culture and efficiency matter. When I got involved with Shaggy’s, people said, “You’ve never run a restaurant. How can you run a restaurant company?” I said, “I don’t need to know restaurants—I need to know how to build an efficient organization.” And that’s what I did.

Even before the pandemic, inefficiencies bothered me—like waiting for a server while they’re chatting instead of serving. But no one believed a team model would work. After the pandemic, no one had a job, and that opened the window. We brought our whole management team back, kept them on payroll, and used that moment to sell everyone on a new way.

It worked. We gained market share while others declined.
 
 

Traditionally, restaurants grow by opening more locations. Yet you’ve shown that growth can come from expanding within existing locations and deepening community roots. Can you share your strategy for that?

Most multi-unit owners measure success by number of locations. But in Biloxi, for example, we were hitting four-hour waits. Demand was already there. Why spend millions on new land and construction somewhere else?

Instead, we added capacity to existing locations—expansions and complementary services. Between 2019 and 2025, revenue at existing locations increased forty-eight percent. We’ve purchased adjacent properties to expand further. In many cases, competitors open next door to us and do fine. So we thought, “Why don’t we open next door to us?” That’s what we’re doing.

It sounds like you have holistic KPIs beyond top-line revenue. For entrepreneurs listening, what metrics do you look at when balancing social impact and business success?

We measure how we perform when the market is down. Food and beverage vendors tell us, “Everyone is down except Shaggy’s.” In some markets, revenues are publicly reported because of resort taxes, so we can track competitors. This year, we’re one of only two restaurants with increasing revenue.

That’s a meaningful metric. It shows how well we’re performing relative to the market.

You mentioned coming from the software world. Where do you think your balanced approach—innovation, people, community—comes from?

I’ve learned more by studying why companies fail than why they succeed. Entrepreneurs often get stuck in the wrong priorities—business cards, websites, offices. I always say, “Go sell something.” Same with restaurants: forget rewards programs—give people a reason to come in. Build a place full of love and joy.

Focus on what matters. That’s what we do at Shaggy’s.

You’ve written a book. In reflecting on your journey, was there anything that surprised you or made you pause while writing it?

Recording the audiobook last week was emotional. I wrote the book myself—chapter one is Katrina, told straight from the heart. Each chapter ends with quotes from an employee interviewed by an independent reporter. When I first read the interviews, I cried. It made me realize we have something more special than I even understood.

Writing and reading it out loud brought everything closer. I now appreciate even more what we’ve built.

Was there a specific moment in the last seventeen years when you truly realized the impact you were having?

Not really. I was raised poor, but my mother—truly a saint—taught me to help others. The Catholic Church would bring meals to us when I was a kid, and that shaped me. I live by the idea that to whom much is given, much is expected. I’ve never stepped back and said, “Look what I did.” I’m just grateful I can help people.

Other than your mother, were there people who shaped the leader you are today?

My dad. I played three sports growing up. Sports taught me teamwork, respect, understanding roles. Building a team in business feels the same—everyone doing what they’re best at. I’m still competing; it just looks different now.

You mentioned you hadn’t planned on this career path. If you weren’t doing this, where do you think you would have ended up?

Trying to answer that would drive me crazy. But my plan had been to get into commercial real estate development—small projects. And funny enough, I’m doing that now. I’m no longer in day-to-day restaurant operations. We developed all five of our locations from the ground up. I love to build. And when I’m not doing that, I’m blue-marlin fishing in the Caribbean.

Community engagement seems to be a big part of your approach. Can you share how you build that connection in each location?

Before opening in any city, we find local organizations to partner with. Fishing is in our DNA, and on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, many kids living near the beach had never caught a fish. So we funded Shaggy’s Angler Camp through the University of Southern Mississippi’s summer program. Seventy-five kids a year catch their first fish, learn to respect the habitat, and learn about preservation.

We did something similar in Jackson—hosting a three-day Shaggy’s Fishing Festival so kids could fish and learn about the environment. It’s about joy, but also stewardship.

For listeners who want to learn more—where can they find your restaurants and your book?

My website is RonLadner.com. The book is Shaggy’s Cheeseburgers, available on Amazon. Although we’re a waterfront seafood restaurant, our cheeseburger is always the number one seller—so much so that my fishing boat is named “Cheeseburger.” The title felt right. A cheeseburger brings comfort and joy in a messy world, which is what we aim to deliver metaphorically.

We end every episode of The Resilience Report with the same question: What will it take for businesses and leaders to be resilient going forward?

There’s nothing we can do about yesterday. But if you learn from your mistakes, they become lessons—and the more lessons you accumulate, the more resilient and successful you become. Focus on now. Turn mistakes into lessons. That’s how you move forward stronger.

Thank you so much, Ron. I can see why your employees love working with you and why your communities are so engaged with your restaurants.

Thank you. I enjoyed it.