Restaurant Leadership Podcast: Overcome Burnout, Embrace Freedom, and Drive Growth
Welcome to the Restaurant Leadership Podcast, the show that teaches you how to overcome burnout, embrace freedom, and drive growth
Your host, Christin Marvin, of Solutions by Christin.
With over two decades of extensive experience in hospitality leadership, Christin Marvin has successfully managed a diverse range of concepts, encompassing fine dining and high-volume brunch.
She has now established her own coaching and consulting firm, collaborating with organizations to accelerate internal leadership development to increase retention and thrive.
Each week, Christin brings you content and conversation to make you a more effective leader.
This includes tips, tricks and REAL stories from REAL people that have inspired her-discussing their successes, challenges and personal transformation.
This podcast is a community of support to inspire YOU on YOUR unique leadership journey.
This podcast will help you answer the following questions:
1. How do I increase my confidence?
2. How do I accelerate my leadership?
3. How do I lower my stress as a leader?
4. How do I prevent burnout?
5. How do I improve my mental health?
So join the conversation and listen in each week on spotify and apple podcasts and follow Christin on LinkedIn.
Voice Over, Mixing and Mastering Credits:
L. Connor Voice - LConnorvoice@gmail.com
Artwork by Solstice Photography, Tucson, AZ.
https://solsticephotography70.pixieset.com/
Restaurant Leadership Podcast: Overcome Burnout, Embrace Freedom, and Drive Growth
69: Finding Passion and Fulfillment Beyond Burnout
Send me a Text Message. I'd love to hear from you.
What would you do if you could redefine success on your own terms?
Clara Capano, an inspirational speaker and entrepreneur, joins us to share her captivating journey from the monotony of corporate life to the exhilarating world of entrepreneurship. Clara talks candidly about how she transformed her passion for coaching into a thriving business, Capano Speaking and Training, and the profound sense of freedom and fulfillment that followed. She opens up about leaving behind burnout and embracing a life aligned with her values—betting on herself and finding energy in her work every day.
Chapters:
00:00:08 - Redefining Success
00:08:53 - Evolving Business Strategy and Sustainability
00:19:28 - Creative Journey in Writing and Media
00:25:27 - Empowering Women in Business
We also explore the evolution of success beyond just ticking off tasks or collecting accolades. Clara recounts her pivotal "moment of clarity," which reshaped her understanding of true success and led to a business model that accommodates her life as a single mom. Her story is a testament to the power of adaptability and the importance of being present, whether it’s shifting to group coaching or crafting a financial strategy that sustains growth through challenging times. Clara's insights provide valuable lessons for anyone striving to balance personal circumstances with professional ambitions.
The episode takes an inspiring turn into the creative realms of writing and media. Clara shares her path as an author and show host, starting from a childhood tale of a magical unicorn to impactful books like "Find Your Focus 52 Weeks of Clarity" and "The Mother of All Success Manuals." Her work supports both working moms and foundations for survivors of human trafficking. We wrap up by celebrating Clara's dedication to empowering women in business, with her resources, courses, and speaking engagements offering a beacon of hope and motivation for those looking to align their goals with their values. Listen as Clara Capano’s story resonates with clarity and courage, inspiring you to redefine success in your life.
Resources:
Clara Capano
The Hospitality Leader's Roadmap: Move from Ordinary to Extraordinary
More from Christin:
Grab your free copy of my audiobook, The Hospitality Leader's Roadmap: Move from Ordinary to Extraordinary at christinmarvin.com/audio
Curious about one-on-one coaching or leadership workshops? Click this link to schedule a 15 minute strategy session.
Podcast Production: https://www.lconnorvoice.com/
Clara Capano is an international speaker, award-winning educator, best-selling author and host of Women Winning their Way and being Productive. She is the founder and CHO Chief Harmony Officer of Capano Speaking and Training Training and the creator of the Clarity Success Method. With over 20 years in sales and leadership, her passion is in providing professionals with key strategies so they can work smarter and build their bottom line by supporting work-life. Harmony, clara and I discussed today her story around understanding, recognizing burnout and also redefining her success on her journey to becoming an entrepreneur. Her story is incredible and you're not going to want to miss this episode. Let's get started.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the no Hesitations podcast, the show where restaurant leaders learn tools, tactics and habits from the world's greatest operators. I'm your host, Christin Marvin, with Solutions by Christin. I've spent the last two decades in the restaurant industry and now partner with restaurant owners to develop their leaders and scale their businesses without wasting time and energy, so they can achieve work-life balance and make more money. Achieve work-life balance and make more money. You can now engage with me on the show and share topics you'd like to hear about leadership, lessons you want to learn and any feedback that you have. Simply click the link at the top of the show notes and I'll give you a shout out on a future episode. Thanks so much for listening and I look forward to connecting. All right, clara, thank you so much for being here. How are you?
Speaker 2:I am fantastic. I'm really excited to talk with you.
Speaker 1:Good. I loved our initial conversation. I was so inspired by your story and cannot wait to share it with listeners. This is a little bit outside of the scope of what we normally talk about, which is restaurants, but it's so. Your story is so in line with a lot of the concepts that I relate to and have gone through in my life with burnout and redefining success and your path to becoming an entrepreneur, so would love for you to let's just jump in, share your story. How did you become an entrepreneur? So we'd love for you to let's just jump in, share your story. How did you become an entrepreneur?
Speaker 2:Fantastic and yeah, you know it's so funny. I think we are all so much more connected than we sometimes think we are when we start sharing these stories. So becoming an entrepreneur honestly happened I'm not going to say by mistake, but I'll say by surprise. Going to say by mistake, but I'll say by surprise. I never thought I would be an entrepreneur For me. I thrive in routine, you know security, doing all those things. So I really thought for me I was going to be the corporate girl. You know, I had a big dream of being a corporate attorney on the 42nd floor of a big building in a big city and having all of those things. And you know I spent a lot of time doing that but I never really felt fulfilled because I always felt like I was sort of in this box.
Speaker 2:And then in 2004, I was actually in the realm of real estate but I was on the leadership side of it and I had an opportunity to get a certification in coaching and I loved it and that was sort of my first experience with really being able to deliver true impact to people and I started to feel a drive towards that, yet being afraid, you know, this whole thing of leaving the secure job with the paycheck and all of those. But I started to notice things were changing. The economy was changing. People who had had their jobs for years no longer had a job, and I started thinking you know, there really is no job security. When you work for yourself, you always will be secure. And I learned that betting on myself was really the best way to go. And so at the age of 35, that's when I started Capano Consulting and I broke out and I jumped ship and I started my consulting business as a coach, speaker, trainer.
Speaker 2:You know doing those things and, honestly, I've never looked back. And it is. It is such a wonderful blend because you do have freedom. You know no one tells you what you have to do.
Speaker 2:At the same time, it's very scary because you wear these two different hats where you are the CEO, you're the independent contractor, you're the, you know I run the show. And also, you have to remember, you're still an employee, because if you don't show up, the organization is not going to make any money. And for me it's been really nice because I can still be very regimented and bring all those things together and also still have my creativity and run things the way I want to run them, because some of the things that I was always challenged with is running things based on somebody else's vision, and there were times where what they wanted to do I just didn't feel were the right things to do. Whether they were right or wrong, I just didn't feel they were right. Now I have sort of that creative control to do the things that I feel are right and are in alignment with my integrity.
Speaker 1:I love that. Would you speak a little bit to a little bit more about when you weren't fulfilled and maybe some burnout that happened in your career and how you knew that that was approaching?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, Well, I didn't realize it was approaching until after it had approached and it was far too late, and there were a lot of warning signs that I should have, you know, paid attention to. And I think, you know, one of the things that I would just get home at the end of the day and I'm not going to say that I was tired, but I was just blah, you know, I didn't feel invigorated. Now, right now, where I am now, there are weeks where I am speaking five days in a row for 10 hours a day, only me, and I get on that plane and I am excited and energized, you know, whereas most people would be like you must be exhausted because, again, I feel fulfilled every day. I would come home and I would just be depleted and angry and just, I just didn't feel purposeful, I didn't, I felt more like I was like I said a piece in somebody else's story but not my own story, Like I said a piece in somebody else's story but not my own story. And I'm just a type of person where human connection and knowing that I'm delivering value and having purpose is really important to me more than a paycheck is. And don't get me wrong, I love money, I love my paycheck, but I need to feel that I'm a part of something, and so I think those were some things that weren't doing it. I had visions of driving to work and praying that I would get into a car accident, not one that would kill me, but one that would just put me in the hospital for a few days where I could rest and nobody would bother me, because the calls would come in and I would see them and I'd be like I don't want to talk to that person, don't want to talk to that person, and you know we shouldn't feel that way. You know we shouldn't. We should feel excited to be able to serve the people. Not that every day is filled with rainbows and unicorns, but we should be somewhat excited to go into our days. You know I didn't want that Monday to come and feel the dread of going back to work on Mondays. When Monday comes now, I'm excited because again it's a new opportunity to impact lives. So I think those were some of the things of doing that, but the biggest one for me was at my son was born when I was 34.
Speaker 2:I became a single mom at 35. And I found myself in that stage, from about 35 to 37, working a full time job, getting my master's degree, launching my business and again being a single mom at all of these. And I remember there was one night. First of all, let's just say I thought it was killing it. I thought I was doing everything because I was getting all my things done, you know, and everything was getting done. And it was at about 730 at night and my son came over to me and he was about three at the time and he just wanted to show me a picture and I didn't even have time to look at the picture. It was mommy will look at that in a few minutes and, lucky for me, he called the shots and he called me out and he's like mom, you're not paying attention to me.
Speaker 2:And it was in that moment that it was like when you see those movies where all of a sudden, all the flashback moments come in and I could see how disconnected I was, how, when I was showing up, I wasn't present. When I was showing up, I was rushing through everything phone calls, conversations because I was like I gotta get to the next thing, I gotta get to the next thing and this vision and this person that I wanted to become, that I thought I was. I had to finally get honest and be like. That was the furthest thing from where I was. I was becoming a person that I didn't want to be. I was not the mom I wanted to be. I was not the daughter I wanted to be. I was not showing up as the leader I wanted to be. You know, and having and listening to some of the feedback of she always sounds so busy. We're always feel like we're interrupting her. I mean it broke my heart because I'm like that's not who I am, but that was who I was.
Speaker 1:Was that how you sorry to interrupt, was that? Was that how you were defining success? Was being busy and just being productive and doing more and more and more?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So for me, success came at the. Did I check off all the boxes? You know, I remember as a kid that's how I defined. Success was how much can I get done, and the more that I do, the more people are going to see that I'm successful. So it was all about checking off the boxes. I can do one job, or I could do three jobs. I could have one title or I could have four titles. You know, it's like all these things. I could work 10 hours or I could have four titles. You know it's like all these things. I could work 10 hours or I could work 14 hours. So it was all about what was I doing? And on that chase to do it all, I came up with two realizations. One, when you try to do everything, you really can't do anything. And when you try to be there for everyone, you really can't be there for anyone. And it was sort of in those moments that I had you know the aha moment for myself.
Speaker 1:I call it my moment of clarity and realize that, yeah, things have got to change. Unlock the skills to transform your leadership with the Hospitality Leaders Roadmap. Move from ordinary to extraordinary. Packed with practical strategies to lead with confidence and create lasting impact in your restaurant. Visit kristenmarvincom. Slash audio to download your free audio book today and attracting new clients with professional podcasts.
Speaker 3:But between scheduling episodes and audio editing, starting a podcast might feel like another thing on your to-do list. At El Conor Voice LLC, we make podcasting simple and effective, from recording to promotion, so you can focus on your clients. You already have the material. I can turn it into engaging podcast episodes that can boost your brand and expand your reach. Discover how easy it can be to launch your show with us. Schedule a free consultation, follow my links in the episode notes, reach out and let's talk.
Speaker 1:When you started your journey owning your own business, did you have a framework? Did you know, like, I'm going to be a coach and I'm going to be a speaker and I'm going to do trainings, I'm going to write these books because this is something that I struggle with Like, how do I create these, these multiple revenue streams in order to keep this sustainable, so that if, if you know, if client work isn't strong, I've got something else to fall back on? Did you know that you wanted to do all those things or did they kind of build over time?
Speaker 2:Okay, I knew and they built over time. So I think this is where, again, you have to kind of be honest with yourself and what's the bandwidth that you had to put forward. Being that my son was so young and I was a single mom, I did not want to be on the road and so I leaned more into the coaching and if I did trainings they were more like lunch and learns locally, so I didn't have to be on the road and I could drop him off at school and, you know, do those things. So for me, starting in the coaching realm really worked well because I could do it from home, I had the flexibility if he got sick, all of those things, because, again, that that was the commitment that I made to myself to be there for him. And then, as he got older, I would then tear into more of the training. I would start with one day courses and all of those, and then, as he became more of a teenager and really didn't want mom around at all, I was able to be on the road a little bit more with the idea that we leveraged technology. So when I would be done teaching at the end of the day I would be back at the hotel on FaceTime doing homework with him, and now he's 19. So you know I can grow it from there. So again I kind of just worked it into the necessities of what I could do and feel like I could give my best.
Speaker 2:I recently have let go of a lot of the one-on-one coaching because I am on the road more that I wasn't feeling I could be present and give the structure that I feel people need with coaching. So now I do more. You know, group I have a membership group and do it more on a larger scale. So I think again your life is going to ebb and flow and that's beautiful. You know, I always say we have to be like Madonna. She would always reinvent herself with every new album. We have to be like Madonna. She would always reinvent herself with every new album. We have to reinvent ourselves too as our lives change and as the demands that we need change.
Speaker 2:Yeah, how long did it take you to grow the business in so that you were in a position where you were comfortable. I was very fortunate that I had a very nice savings account. I am a saver, so I built that up so that sort of gave me some time. So for the first three months it was really hard. So for the first three months I went from making a six-figure income down to about $25,000. So it was terrifying.
Speaker 2:So for the first month I did all the right activities, because that's what I did first is I strategically came up with if I want this result, what are my non negotiable activities, what do I need to do? And so I just did those every day. First 30 days not really anything. Went to the bank, took money out of my savings account, all of that. Second month I maybe kind of got a little bit of momentum and it was really by the third month. I would say the fourth month was when I had to stop going to my savings account. The third month, I would say the fourth month, was when I had to stop going to my savings account. Then from there it started growing and growing and growing, and so that was so it took me and I would say on average.
Speaker 2:Again, it really depends on the industry that you're in, but I think you need to mentally prepare for a minimum of six to nine months. Again, you're starting a business and it wasn't necessarily that I was having a lucrative business until probably about 18 months into it, but again, it was stable. And you know, I still I'm I'm a contract worker. I have months where I make a lot of money and I have months where I make nothing. So again, you have to look at these and I have a lot of seasonality to my business.
Speaker 2:So you know you have to be able to plan for those. And those are all things that you start to learn over the course of time so that you can budget more and also energetically. Like for me, there's not a lot of trainings, not a lot of conferences that happen in the summer months as they do in the fall and in the first quarter. So for me, I know from September till about February, march, I'm going to be on the road almost every week. I know that I can build up for it, I can get to it, so I can power through, because I know from, like April to September, it's much lighter for me. So again, those are all things that you start to learn over time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely it's. It's so much like restaurants too. I mean, there's so many businesses out there that are so seasonal, but it's something that you know a couple of coaches, fellow coaches in this space and I have talked about that that seasonality and that wave. It will never go away. You've got to, you've got to save when you can and then you know that for the next. You know, for me I've gotten a client or two in a month and then it's like crickets for two months, right, even though I'm still working the plan and still networking like crazy. I'm curious what some of those I mean kudos to you. Three months to start bringing in some income is amazing. What were some of those non-negotiables that you were?
Speaker 2:doing those first 90 days. So one of the things that I do as a non-negotiable and I still do do almost all of these is every Sunday I have a weekly strategy session with myself. So again I put the CEO hat on and I look at my whole week and I'm like, okay, let's what's working, what's not working. I look at the last week so I can carry things that are working in and then I can really get my targets together and get my schedule together. And I put my schedule together very honestly with the hours of time that I have, because some weeks I have 40 hours a week, some weeks I have four hours a week if I'm going to be on the road. So I start to look at what is the work that I have, what is the hours that I have and what's the highest and best use of those hours.
Speaker 2:Every morning my morning routine is a non-negotiable. I'm an early bird I'm not saying everybody has to be and I know in the restaurant industry some people you know they're not getting home until two or three in the morning, so it's a very different thing. But for me I get up at 5 am for about my first 90 minutes. It is mindset work, exercise. I'll either take my dog for a walk or I'll do like a yoga class or Pilates class or something you know getting my coffee. I do my visualization exercises, get all of those, then I get ready. I like to be at my desk by 7am. So when I'm working from home, even though I only have to walk across the hall, I still get up, I still get dressed.
Speaker 2:I go to work every day and then my morning, for the first you know, hour, hour and a half of my morning is a lot of admin work. So that's where I'm doing a lot of email, reach outs, kind of going through getting my social media together. Then I'm available for appointments. Now appointments could be virtual coffees for networking. It could be available to teach a class, do a podcast or whatever. So from about nine until about two o'clock I'm sort of available for appointments. Then I come back and I do kind of like a wrap up, I do follow up and then from three to four sort of close out my day and I'm usually done with my day by about four o'clock.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. I love that so structured. Yeah, I have found success too in those weekly strategy sessions. Even if it's 10 or 15 minutes of just going, okay, what have I got coming up this week? I did a ton of journaling when I first started after every single conversation I had, because I was really trying to teach myself how to sell and sell through connection, and that's what it is Going back again to the specifics that I do like I will do an hour of personal development every day.
Speaker 2:So, whether that's reading podcasts, listening to whatever, I'm always growing myself. I'm a big believer in handwritten notes, so I do handwritten notes every day. These could be to people that I work with, people that I met, you know, whatever it is. I just I love doing those. I think it's a really great way to deliver impact. Again, social media I do a lot of reach outs. You know LinkedIn is my primary platform that I use, so I do those. I do again, you know, virtual coffees. I like to do three virtual coffees a week. So, again, you know all of these things. Like you said, networking, and the one thing that you and I have in common is this idea of delivering value. And, again, building relationships. We don't just go out there with my hey, you should love me, work with me t shirt. It's like relationship here. Let me deliver value, because I know if I deliver value, the business will come back.
Speaker 1:So talk a little bit about kind of the your business sequence. When did the? When did the show come up? When did your first book come into play? What was that like? Love it.
Speaker 2:So I've always been a writer. The first book I will say that I wrote was in sixth grade and it was something about a unicorn a magical unicorn, so I would not say it's my best work, but you know we did that. My first real book was published in 2017. And it's right behind me. It's that one. It's called Find your Focus 52 Weeks of Clarity.
Speaker 2:I love to write. It's one of my favorite things to do, so I started with a blog and then what I did is I gathered up 52 of my blogs and the idea is you go through it over the course of a year, so you read the passage and then you journal about how you can implement the lesson into your week. So that's my first one. My second book is a collaboration. It's called Women who Boss Up, so it's 15 of us sharing our stories, and that came out in 2020. And then my latest book, which is this one over my shoulder, is the Mother of All Success Manuals, and this is a guidebook to working moms, just teaching them how to get out of the stress, the overwhelm, and to find what I like to call work-life harmony.
Speaker 2:I don't believe in balance. It's all about harmony. So those are those and then my two shows that I do. I have my sort of podcast streaming TV show called Women Winning their Way, where I highlight women who are doing things outside of the box and outside of the norm. That started in 2020. Covid was very good to me. Covid helped me get a lot of these projects off the ground. And then I started another one last year and it's on a bilingual network out of Houston and it is called Be Productive. So I just interview industry experts about different ways to be productive.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. So my you know I've got my first book coming out here in a couple of weeks.
Speaker 2:Talk to me a little bit about.
Speaker 1:I know, I know it's real. Finally it's happening. Talk to me a little bit about your expectations for your first book, and did it meet your expectations when it launched?
Speaker 2:So my first book I self-published and I really wanted it more as a calling card. I just felt to give me some clout. I wanted it as a giveaway, so if I went to speaking it could be a gift that I could give. I just wanted something easy, fun, that people could pick up and, honestly, it did exceed my expectations. I'm not going to say it made me a millionaire by any means, but I mean I yeah, people are still buying it and they still love it, and so it really has helped me.
Speaker 2:The thing that I've done with all of my books is I am part of a foundation called you Are my Light and we focus on building recovery homes for survivors of human trafficking and slave labor. So for all of my books, the proceeds go to that foundation. So for all of my books, the proceeds go to that foundation. So for me being able to, also when I speak like last week I was in San Diego and we had a little impromptu book signing I just happened to have a box of the books with me and I said listen, they're free, just donate what you feel you would like to donate, and I left there with over $200 in donations. So you know people do want to give. So I love those.
Speaker 2:Now, for my second and third book, again, I wanted those to be a little bit bigger. Both of them are bestsellers, so that was nice that they are, and they definitely have opened doors and allowed me to, you know, get into conversations, because I'm just again, it's the. These are sort of my heart, these are my gifts, these are my heart space and you know, things that I want to do. I just see too many people working too hard and I just don't feel we need to work that hard. Not that we don't have to work hard, but, again, not at the cost of our lives, not at the cost of our relationships, not at the cost of our integrity. And those are lessons that I've learned. You can still work hard, but do it on your terms.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how are you defining success today?
Speaker 2:no-transcript today. And then the third one is did I contribute positively to the world today? Because, if I can say yes to those three things, it was a successful day.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. I love that. Well, you have so much value that you're putting out there and I thank you so much for the work that you're doing and for spending time with me on the show today. Will you I'm gonna put these in the all of your resources in the show notes, of course, and they're you know we talked about at the beginning of the episode but will you just kind of give an overview of what resources you have available to anybody that's interested in working with you and then how they can contact you?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. So I have a lot of workshops that can be either virtual or in person. I'm getting ready to relaunch an on-demand course called Creating Clarity and that walks people through the seven steps of clarity, because the purpose of this is we all get our goals, but if we're not clear on the components to support the goal, such as how does it fit to our vision, how are we gonna leverage our time? What are the key activities? You know, are we living with value? So I help them find clarity behind the goal so that they can achieve the goal. So that's going to be an on-demand course that's launching in November. All my other courses are on there. I have courses on time leverage, on knowing your value, so you're not just taking up space.
Speaker 2:You know, for those out there that are in women's group, I have a great talk on lead like a lioness for women in business, so they can go and do that. My show women winning their way. There are obviously links on the website, but they can find it on the podcast station, spotify, itunes. It's also on my YouTube channel, which is Capano speaking and training, and I'm really working to grow that. So anybody that would love to go follow the show rate the show. You know, my goal is to turn that into a number one show and then have it get picked up by a platform like Netflix or Hulu so that I can travel around the globe and interview these women in person.
Speaker 1:I love that. That's amazing. Well, you are inspiring and you are just an absolute beast. Thank you for everything that you're doing for women and business owners and providing clarity. It's been an absolute honor and please, everybody, go check out Claire's website and utilize her resources. Grab her book, take the courses, hire her for speaking engagements the whole nine yards. And that is going to do it for us this week. Please share this podcast with anybody that you know in the industry that could benefit and we'll talk to you next week. Thanks, everybody.
