Building Restaurants From Scratch and Designing a Life With Free Time for Your Family

Roger Beaudoin, a seasoned restaurateur and restaurant consultant, shares his journey from starting a pizza delivery service in college to creating successful restaurant concepts in this episode of the Bringing Up Business podcast, hosted by Kaila Sachse. 

He also discusses the challenges he faced, the importance of adapting to market needs, and how he balanced his family life with running a business. 

Roger emphasizes the significance of building a sustainable business with systems in place and instilling financial literacy in his children, aiming to inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs.

More About Roger Beaudoin
Roger Beaudoin is a 30-year hospitality professional. He created five high volume restaurant concepts from scratch with double the net profit of the average restaurant. Roger is now President of Restaurant Rockstars, selling online restaurant training systems that increase profit. He is also a personal restaurant coach, 2-time author, and host of the weekly Restaurant Rockstars Podcast.

rogerbeaudoin.com

Roger@restaurantrockstars.com

restaurantrockstars.com/podcasts

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Transcript

Kaila Sachse (00:02.42)
Welcome to the Bringing Up Business podcast where we talk about business and parenting. I am your host, Kaila Sachse, owner of marketing agency, Yumari Digital, and mom of a two-year-old. Today's guest, Roger Beaudoin, is going to give you insight about what it's like to stumble across a great idea, act on it with persistence, and eventually create a thriving business and a thriving family.

Roger is a 30 year hospitality professional. He created five high volume restaurant concepts from scratch with double the net profit of the average restaurant. Roger is now president of Restaurant Rockstars, selling online restaurant training systems that increase profit. He is also a personal restaurant coach, two time author,

and host of the weekly Restaurant Rockstars podcast. Without further adieu welcome to the show, Roger.

Roger (01:00.878)
Kaila, thanks so much for your kind introduction. That's wonderful.

Kaila Sachse (01:06.678)
my goodness. Well, let's be honest, half of it was written by you, but the other half genuinely came from the bottom of my heart. I really enjoyed the conversation that you and I have shared before. And yeah, let's let's get into it. Tell our listeners about how you accidentally started a restaurant. There's a whole really cool story about this. Let's chat.

Roger (01:29.42)
Yeah, and I think there's a piece I didn't even tell you about. It It all started in college and graduate school when I literally, I didn't really have any restaurant experience. I bartended in college here and there, it was nice extra money or whatnot, but I started a pizza delivery service utilizing the local pizzeria that was within say a three mile radius of campus. And then I approached the owner and said, hey, know, I'm on campus, I could market your business.

I'll hire all these delivery drivers and they currently weren't serving the campus. They just had their own local dine-in business and takeout. And so I did all that and took off and I literally was paid a percentage of all the business that I drove in and then all my drivers were paid for tips. So that worked for two years in college and two years in graduate school. And little did I know I would continue in the pizza business, but that came later. I went to graduate school and

Kaila Sachse (02:21.876)
Bye.

Roger (02:26.146)
got an MBA and one of the reasons I chose Babson College was because there was an internship where students could work for European companies solving a complex business challenge. And that sounded like exactly what I wanted to do. And it was a pretty competitive program, lots of applications, not everyone was selected, but once the applications or once the students were selected for the projects, the school sent everyone's resume all over Europe and Asia and the company got to select.

the person they wanted to work with. So I was selected by a global pharmaceutical company to set up a US subsidiary corporation and tie it structurally and legally to their organization. And what a monumental project that was. But not to get off track, I'm living in Italy in Milan and the world is opening up to me and there's literally a pizzeria on every corner. And if you've ever been to Italy, it's this revered

Kaila Sachse (02:57.15)
Roger (03:21.246)
food that was invented in Naples and the ovens are these beautiful, elaborate, mosaic tile covered brick ovens and they're burning wood in the back of the oven and the fire's blazing at 800 degrees and the pizza makers are throwing the dough and it's a cultural thing. And I was so captivated by that, the concept, the culture, the pizza, I ate a lot of pizza. And again, I never thought I'd be in the restaurant or the pizza business.

Kaila Sachse (03:37.277)
Yeah.

Kaila Sachse (03:47.807)
Yeah.

Roger (03:49.086)
If you were to fast forward a couple of years later, I was actually interviewing for a job at a major New England ski resort. And I'm a huge skier and I was interested getting in the ski business. And I'm interviewing for this marketing position, but they're not hiring me right away. They keep bringing me back for more and more interviews only because they didn't have a job open, but they saw some pretty unique entrepreneurial skills. So they're trying to figure out what can we do with this guy? Because we don't want them to get away, but we don't really have an open job. And I ended up writing my own job description.

Kaila Sachse (04:15.729)
Yeah.

Roger (04:18.69)
But before that happened, you have to imagine this sleepy little New England town that has this major ski resort in it that brings 500,000 people in the winter, but then the rest of the year it's completely dead and it's a population of 1,500 local people that live there. And every winter it gets inundated with skier traffic. There's a half a dozen restaurants, five or six maybe. There's a video rental store, if you remember those back in the day.

Kaila Sachse (04:45.437)
Yep.

Roger (04:47.276)
You know, a couple of motels and bed and breakfast inns, but no infrastructure that kept up with the huge growth of the ski resort. So I'm on every job interview and I'm going out to eat in these restaurants and the service was lackluster and the product was mediocre and there was no ambiance or any sophistication to any of the offerings. And the same with the service and the other service businesses and they had lines out the door.

and no one was trained in hospitality or guest service. And I'm like, here's an opportunity. So suddenly these pizzerias in Europe pop back into my head. And I thought, wow, if I start one of these wood-fired pizzerias, I could really have something here. So that was kind of the seed of that. So sometimes when we're young, we have these grandiose ideas of success in our heads. And I wrote a business plan. I went back to Babson College because I didn't own a computer at the time.

And I banged out this business plan that literally asked for a million dollars for a loan. And this was probably 1994. And that was a lot of money, especially, you know, in a risky business like restaurants. But but only because I didn't I wanted to I guess I wanted to run before I could walk. I wanted to buy a beautiful piece of property. I wanted to I had this vision in my head of creating this European concept.

Kaila Sachse (05:53.457)
Yeah.

Roger (06:06.978)
building a building that felt European, not American. And literally you needed a million dollars to do that. So there were lots of meetings with banks and commercial lenders. I at least got the meetings and here's the business plan. And the first question is how many restaurants have you ever owned or managed before? And I'm like, I've never been in the restaurant business, but read the business plan. I got a great idea, you know?

Kaila Sachse (06:22.525)
shoot.

Kaila Sachse (06:28.785)
You're like, and I was doing pizza delivery back when, so you know, that's it. Yeah.

Roger (06:31.468)
Yeah, that's it. I had a pizza delivery company and you know, no bricks and mortar. It's like I just hired some drivers and it worked, you know. So you can imagine I didn't get very far with that and I got laughed out of a few offices. But the crux really came when I met a commercial lender for a major New England bank that actually skied this resort every weekend. And he knew the opportunity and he knew that the service was bad and the food was average and that there were lines out the door. And he knew I had an MBA and I could start a business.

Kaila Sachse (06:37.82)
That was great.

Roger (07:01.632)
So we sat down, he's like, I think we can do business together. So suddenly I get dollar signs in my head. Hey, I did it. And the guy says, well, I'm not gonna give you a million dollars. Maybe if you scale this thing way back, I can give you $150,000. So you really can't do much with that. And certainly you can't buy land, build a building, outfit it with equipment, furniture, and have working capital. None of that was gonna happen. So the only thing was to find an existing space.

Kaila Sachse (07:24.262)
Yeah.

Roger (07:28.194)
that had some restaurant equipment that just happened to have four failed restaurants there before I got there. So there's this stigma to overcome, know, six miles away on the wrong side of the railroad tracks with a leaky roof and you name it, a difficult landlord, but that was the only option available. And I remember to this day, my father who's since passed on, you know, he's there and

Kaila Sachse (07:33.757)
Great. great.

Roger (07:49.998)
we had signed the lease, but we needed to knock walls down and rebuild this and that. And he's like, it's not too late. It's not too late. Are you sure he's got the sledgehammer in his hand? And he's like, are you sure you want to do this? And I'm like, yeah, let's go for it. So then he starts tearing walls down and then there was no turning back. So the restaurant opened in December of 1995 and the course lines out the door. But this time we offered a sophisticated experience since we didn't know much about the restaurant business.

Kaila Sachse (08:00.93)
You

Roger (08:17.664)
It wasn't an extensive menu. was wood-fired pizza with maybe eight or nine specialty pizzas. It was one solid. And it was soft jazz music and beer and wine and this really intimate space that we transformed into a European concept. And it was literally an overnight success. Lines out the door and then people stopped going everywhere else. And then, wow, you know, so we had to expand. I think we had 80 seats to start.

and then we were able to knock out another wall and bring in another 25 seats. We had just over 100 seats and that was a success. The very first season we opened, but here's the kicker. I mentioned 500,000 people in the winter time in the spring when we call it mud season here in New England, the skier is shuts down and the sidewalks roll up and there's nobody here. It's a ghost town and we didn't know.

how many locals would actually patronize our business. And I told you it was a limited population anyway, but we opened up probably in June of that summer and we proceeded to lose every nickel of profit we made all winter serving three people one night and five people the next night and all that money disappeared. So literally we had to max everything out on at least three different credit cards just to get some cash, just to reopen the next season and then never again.

Kaila Sachse (09:15.045)
Yeah.

Kaila Sachse (09:27.0)
Roger (09:38.498)
where are going to operate that business on a seasonal, I'm sorry, on a full time year-round basis. So then I would say after the second winter that was also just as successful as the first, back to the banks, here's my business plan, did what I said I could do, I'd like my million dollars please, and this time I got the million dollars. So.

Kaila Sachse (09:44.763)
Mm.

Kaila Sachse (10:00.668)
Wow, my goodness, was it the same banker who helped you the first time or was it somebody different?

Roger (10:07.69)
Actually went to a multitude of banks because I learned very quickly you have to negotiate and you want the best rates in the best terms and even though we were supported we gave that person a shot and Whatnot but we ended up going with a local bank this time instead versus a big giant regional bank and they were really aggressive in getting the business and we got a really super rate and Interestingly, I worked with that banker for about 25 years. We built a relationship. So but interestingly, didn't tell you this but

full-time job working at the ski resort. I took the job and then running the restaurant until 12 or 1 o'clock every night, literally six, seven days a week, and it was really, really intense for two years.

Kaila Sachse (10:47.96)
Wow, so you're basically doing double shifts. You're working a job and working your restaurant. wow.

Roger (10:50.676)
Yeah, that's absolutely true. So somehow made it past all that. now, OK, we've got this million dollar loan. When I was working at the ski resort, I passed by this beautiful piece of property that was 18 acres of land and there was an old farmhouse sitting there that was unoccupied. And the price, I think, was five hundred thousand dollars for 18 acres back in.

probably 1996, but the price kept coming down, coming down, coming down because there were no bites on the property. So that property ended up selling for about $225,000, I think I bought. So almost half of what the original list price was. And that was just a no brainer. that was, so, you know, there's the farmhouse. We ended up keeping some of the features of the farmhouse in the cabinetry behind the bar where all the liquor bottles were stored.

and timbers, old timber beams were used inside for ambiance. there was some heritage to it. It was probably one of the oldest structures in this little town. And so we wanted to preserve some of that. And then as you might know, people are creatures of habit. So this place opened up in November of 1997. And I remember to this day standing in the window watching 20, 30, 40 cars drive right by and not pull into the parking lot.

And then there's one car and then another 20 or 30 cars drives by. And it was so frustrating. Try to build that audience because there was a popular brew pub about a half a mile up the street from this location that just dominated the local area. They had all the business and beer was, you know, you put beer on the sign and people just drive on in and sure we had beer too, but it took a little while to build an audience. An audience. And we were at a ski resort. So suddenly I got this brainstorm. Let's

Originally, it was this rustic concept, you know, old main woods, timber frame, this and that old antiques was the ambiance, fill the place with old antiques and just stuff to look at. Nobody really cared about that. So we pulled all the antiques down and then we started decorating the place with skiing memorabilia, old skis from every era and boots and bindings and trail signs and trail maps. And suddenly it became the shrine to the sport that everyone loved here at the mountain.

Kaila Sachse (13:08.237)
you

Roger (13:08.332)
and then it started to take off. And then I created some systems that really increased profit year after year after year. And then I ran the place for 20 years and I could tell you what happened next.

Kaila Sachse (13:19.514)
my goodness. it sounds like for the success of your business, you had to compete with another business down the street. So you had to divert that attention from them to your business. And part of that was you having to reflect your restaurant to the environment around it. So instead of these antiques that nobody seemed to care about, you reflected the ski.

the ski resort itself, all of the memorabilia, things that people were passionate about with skiing, you had that going on inside of the restaurant.

Roger (13:58.328)
That's absolutely true. the other place I was telling you about the brew pub, they had rock bands three nights a week. So suddenly we had to do that. The first experiment was sort of a disco thing with sound and light systems and disco balls and bringing in professional DJs and me watching an empty dance floor weekend after weekend. And people weren't really into that. So then

I had this idea that I had to road trip and see what some of the more successful places like mine throughout ski country in New Hampshire and Vermont and visit five, six, seven different places, some of which I was familiar with as a skier growing up and just copying ideas that I thought would really add to the ambiance of this place. And one of those ideas, there was a place in Vermont at a ski resort that had a fire pit inside the building and the kids would roast marshmallows in the fire pit.

and it was right in the middle of the bar and people would sit around it and warm themselves up and it had this real, I'm like, I gotta do that. So we built the fire pit. And unfortunately, even though we hired a professional mason to build the fire pit, something with the elevation of our roof and the flu and the thing literally never worked. And every time we lit a fire in the fire pit, we smoked everybody right out of the building. And it was so, yeah, so embarrassing where here's.

Here's Roger, right? And I got a snow shovel and I'm literally picking up all these burning logs and embers and the back door was pretty close and I'm shoveling all this stuff out into a snowbank just to and trying to open all the doors. And what a nightmare. I could tell you stories about all the mistakes and mishaps that happened along the way. But my goal was literally to dominate the area and to take down that brew pub and be the place that everybody went. And it took a couple of years, but ultimately it happened.

Kaila Sachse (15:41.826)
my goodness. your goal of dominating the brew pub down the street and you, your establishment being the number one, how did that goal shift from when you had first started? Because you didn't know that you were eventually going to move into this beautiful 18 acre space. I what was your initial goal and how did that shift over time?

Roger (15:59.79)
Thanks.

Well, it shifted primarily. mentioned difficult landlord, but the rent obviously had escalation clauses in it. So as long as I continue to renew that lease, the landlord basically saw that we had a successful business. He thought we were printing money. So every new lease literally had more and more higher square footage costs and all this other kind of stuff. And like I said, the location was poor and it lacked enough parking.

And once I once I saw this land, you know, literally on the doorstep of the ski resort that had high visibility, like 1200 feet in either direction, you just see this place. And so we figured out, OK, not only are we going to build this building, but I told you it took a while for the cars to start coming in the parking lot. We're like, what can we do these crazy little hooks to draw attention? And before it turned into a wood fired pizza, I told you it was a rustic concept and it.

basically had a grizzly bear theme and it was called the Great Grizzly Bar and Steakhouse. So I had a professional artist take this 13 foot giant log. He was an artist in every medium you can imagine. He took a chainsaw and he carved this giant grizzly bear that was the most frightening thing he ever saw. And we mounted it right on the front lawn next to the road. it was inspired by something I saw in Switzerland on a wooden chalet. There was a bear.

mounted on the side of the chalet, it had this giant chalice or big drinking cup in its hand, like he's toasting the world, like it's full of beer or something. And I'm like, I gotta have that element. So of course he carved the torch, the chalice, and that was cool for a while, but then I'm like, we need to draw more attention to this thing. So then somehow we hooked it up and we put a torch on top that was propane fired, and every night,

Roger (17:50.774)
when it got dark, we'd light this propane torch and there's this three foot flame coming off the top of the bear that you could see all the way down the street. Things like that, you know, and then you'd cover the building with like white lights around the perimeter of the building. So this place just looked like something and that started to drive traffic. And then people then word of mouth kicks in and people say, you got to go to this cool place because it's filled with ski memorabilia. And then it just grew and grew and grew from there. But it was those little things that those creative ideas that

sparked people's imagination and literally brought them in the door.

Kaila Sachse (18:21.942)
Oh my goodness, so it sounds like you melded the two of these concepts together. You melded a uniqueness that no one could find anywhere else. Where's the giant bear? Well, go to Roger's Restaurant. You will find the giant bear with the propane torch on top. You can see it from miles away. And also, so you're taking these unique ideas that are very eye-catching and fun, and you're melding them with past experiences that you had seen out in the world, right?

You're in Italy, you're in Switzerland, you're seeing all these really cool things out in the world, and you're just going on these road trips and you're checking out all these different restaurants and you're seeing what they're doing. So you're kind of combining both your imagination with what works out in the world.

Roger (19:01.742)
you're what they're doing. So you're kind of combining.

Roger (19:09.314)
That brings us back to the pizza thing, because I mentioned it was called the Great Grizzly Bar and Steakhouse, but that didn't really resonate so much with the skiing theme and the memorabilia. And so the original restaurant, I didn't tell you, was named after a famous mountain in Switzerland called the Matterhorn that most everyone's heard of. You know, it's it's on every Toblerone chocolate bar, and it's a symbol of Paramount Pictures, just this iconic mountain.

And when I was in Italy, I had a chance to visit this little town of Zermatt and I became obsessed with the Matterhorn. And I said, someday I've got to climb that mountain. And so it became the namesake of my restaurant, but I also was able to climb it twice over the years. And so, okay, we got this powerful name called Matterhorn, which is more mountain themed. It fits better. The great grizzly doesn't really resonate with anyone. The bear is still on the front lawn, by the way, but.

Kaila Sachse (19:47.317)
amazing.

Kaila Sachse (19:56.744)
you

Roger (19:57.846)
The pizzeria, we closed that location because we didn't want to renew the lease. So we built, we were able to build a second floor on the shell, on the barn that we constructed. And that was a real opportune decision because architects were designing this building. And then there was a building, a bid process with multiple contractors who were going to build it and money was tight. know, this million dollars didn't go very far and a more expensive bid.

had the foresight of saying, if you build this post and beam structure that'll support a second floor, then you can grow when three or four other bids just had a traditional trust structure in the roof that wouldn't allow us to build anything and just have a very high ceiling. So even though it costs maybe $100,000 more to go with that builder, that was the decision that was made and ultimately it was smart because the second floor got built on the building. When that happened, we brought in,

a Mason that literally built a new wood fired brick oven and you know, it was a work of art and we put that right in the middle of the dining room because it was part of the show. So the next mistake was I was really afraid that pizza sales were gonna dominate because it was more profitable to sell steaks and seafood than it was to sell pizza. And suddenly I thought we've got this really big expensive building and if suddenly, you know, the less profitable items become the biggest sellers and

you know, we sell very little steak, then this is going to be really hard to make the payments. So the mistake was having two separate entrances to this big building and making people choose, are you here for the steak house or are you here for the pizza place as if it was two separate restaurants and everyone walking in either door says, what do mean? We're here for dinner. My wife wants steak and I want a pizza and my kid wants this.

Kaila Sachse (21:40.916)
Roger (21:48.244)
And we were really alienating people from the start. Like, what's this crazy? No, we want one menu. We want to be able to order. So that didn't last very long. Thankfully, we were able to recover quickly, made one entrance, one menu. Sure, you can have whatever you want. And then we just focused on training people to sell and be really profitable on what we did sell. you know, mistakes you make along the way, thinking the best, but not necessarily making the best decision at first.

Kaila Sachse (22:13.148)
Right, right, always doing our best, right? We have only a limited amount of information. Exactly, amazing. So now enter in your family and you're building out your family with your wife. What came first? Did you create the restaurant first before you created your family or vice versa? What was that journey like?

Roger (22:15.948)
Yeah, best of intentions. Sure. Yeah, that's right.

Roger (22:35.788)
Yeah, the restaurant came first, of course, and obviously I've had a very supportive wife over the years who's very business minded and she's contributed a lot to the restaurant also. But I guess the saving grace was I mentioned having a seasonal business and the fact that this business as intense as it was, was only open four months a year in the winter.

And then literally from April through November, the place is closed. So I was fortunate to spend lots of developmental time with my kids. We visited every playground within a 30 mile radius. It's like we went on family vacations. We did all, all of these things. And then when I was working, of course, my wife was watching the kids and then they, they got really enamored with the business. And I remember them. I'll never forget, like my two year old, my first born daughter is in one of those little.

Walker cars to teach them how to walk. And it had this big orange flag on the back because she's literally in the middle of the bar, scooting through the floor and all the customers are like opening up and my kid is like scooting around, you know, and they thought that was great. And then they, the kids, you know, did little jobs here and there and they'd be rolling silverware as they grew up. they felt like real big shots, you know, cause you know, my parents own this place and we get to come over here and everyone treats us like we're rock stars, you know, but.

I'd say the saving grace was definitely having a seasonal business that allowed us to shut down. But that also fueled the creative juices because in this business, it's very easy to get burned out. If you're working 24 seven in a very intense business called the restaurant business, it's really hard to find time for anything else. And I've seen and known so many people that miss their kids soccer games and graduations and all this other stuff simply because they were tied to the business. And more so now.

post pandemic when so many businesses are struggling with labor, but that thankfully never happened to us.

Kaila Sachse (24:25.928)
Wow. What piece of advice would you give to somebody who is trying to balance both or looking to start one or the other, right? They have a family, but they want to start a business or vice versa.

Roger (24:34.2)
Mm-hmm.

Yep. Yes, the best advice I can offer is you really need systems in no matter what business that we're talking about. And you don't need to run a jewelry store or restaurant or a day spa or whatever it is. You need to run a business regardless of what industry you're in. And that means somehow figuring out or hiring people that have business skills to put these systems in place so that you know your financials inside and out. You know every dollar coming in, every dollar going out.

and not just trying to put out good food or have good service behind the counter. I mean, it's really at the end of the day a business. And if you can do that, but most importantly, building what I call a dreams team staff that have your back, that run the places if they owned it and they're incentivized to do so, then that's twofold. It allows you to take time off and get yourself out of your business if you can trust these people and you incentivize them to run it. And they say you have a system if you can

walk away from your business for a day, a week, a month, or a year, and when you come back, it's just as successful because of the systems you put in place and the people that you entrusted to run it as if they owned it. And that was also the key to success. So if you can do that, then that allows you to have as much free time with your family as you want. You can still come in and be a customer, or you can still spend a couple hours a day in there, but you're not tied to the business.

And then the exit strategy is if you do this and if you're successful at doing that, then you can grow your business. You can open another restaurant, two restaurants, five jewelry stores, whatever. You can franchise your business. You can sell it and go into an entirely different industry. But if you don't have the business skills and if you don't have the systems, you're literally tied to what I call a mom and pop business that isn't profitable enough to hire someone to run it for you.

Kaila Sachse (26:28.21)
Got it. So it sounds like the goal isn't to give yourself a job within your restaurant, but instead to create a business that is self-sustaining without.

Roger (26:32.952)
Yes, you're right.

Roger (26:37.972)
Absolutely true. That's the key to everything. And it helps to have a seasonal operation, which is even harder to operate because there's no margin for error and you really have to be super profitable. But I couldn't trade the time that I spent, you know, with my kids and with my family. And that's continued today with our current business Restaurant Rockstars. You know, I'm able to spend lots of family time and it's allowed us to, you know, have the time freedom that, you know, a lot of people wish they had.

Kaila Sachse (27:04.914)
That's beautiful. What do you think your kids have learned from you being in business? And your wife too, because it sounds like she's contributed a lot.

Roger (27:14.098)
yes. yes. Well, she runs our Restaurant Rockstar's business behind the scenes and she's got a marketing mind and she's also social media savvy and she's a constant learner and a seeker of knowledge. And so she's always learning new things. But my kids have watched all of this and they've definitely been inspired by this entrepreneurial lifestyle. And our oldest daughter decided not to go to college.

Basically, she was a very good student in college, but she didn't want to open another book, but she was inspired by this entrepreneurial thing and she's become a realtor in our local area. And she's really inspired by, I don't need a college degree to do this if I have ambition and fortitude and I can do much better than a lot of kids I know going to college if all my, you know, if all the dominoes align. So she's inspired by us. We continue to coach her. Her mom was a realtor for many years and

Her grandfather was also a realtor, so she had that, you know, she has the benefit of prior knowledge and it's a family legacy thing, but we're her biggest supporters. And then our youngest daughter's leaving for college in a couple of months and we're not quite sure where she's gonna go, but she's done some entrepreneurial things on the side as well. So I think that'll always be a part of their future.

Kaila Sachse (28:26.129)
What is your dream for your daughters?

Roger (28:30.434)
Yeah, mean, I'd like them to, well, I'd like them to marry people that they truly love and are loved back that treat them phenomenally well. And our youngest daughter has a boyfriend like that and he's just wonderful and amazing. And our biggest goal or dream is we'd love them to stay together. But first we want them to be happy. And then second, obviously we want them to be fulfilled in whatever they choose, whether they choose to work, whether they choose...

to go to college, whether they choose not to go to college or whatever they choose to do, we just want them to feel like we will always support them, we will always encourage them, regardless of what those dreams are. So I'd love to see them be inspired by what we've done and take it to the 10x what we've done and really surprise us with what they're capable of.

Kaila Sachse (29:17.179)
That is the coolest part of being a parent is getting to see your kid thrive in a different way than you expected. And to have your dreams for your children, it's something indescribable. mean, you talk about wanting true fulfillment for your daughters, and I understand that to my core for my kid. I want the exact same thing for him. I just want him to live a life that is meaningful to him. And in doing that, that's going to naturally give back to

Roger (29:24.92)
Mm-hmm.

Kaila Sachse (29:47.227)
to the society around us.

Roger (29:49.539)
And in a way, you know, they're trying to run their lives like little businesses too. And our oldest daughter is now she's followed our lead and now she's investing some of the money she's making in real estate versus just going out clubbing like so many girls or friends that she has and just spending lots of money. She wants to invest her money. She's got dreams of the next car she wants to buy. And she's got this aspirational lifestyle that she is laser focused on. And it's all about making smart decisions.

And yeah, being smart with money and I've we've tried to teach them that from the beginning and I guess that's a lasting legacy also, but we'll see where they go.

Kaila Sachse (30:26.692)
Yeah. What were some things, speaking of money, because this is a really important topic, what were some things that you did to teach your daughters about money in a logistical way? What did you do?

Roger (30:37.536)
I guess the danger of credit cards, because we wanted them to get credit cards early so that they could build a credit history. But we also wanted them to quickly realize that if you don't pay off your balance at the end of every month, you're just paying interest on interest on interest. And it's compounding daily. And you could get yourself into trouble pretty quickly if you just are obsessed with spending. So I think that was a valuable lesson to learn.

Kaila Sachse (30:39.568)
Yeah

Roger (31:03.81)
And then we always wanted them to, for any job they worked, we wanted them to put some aside, either in savings or in investment, have a little bit to spend and maybe have a little bit to give back, and those are life lessons also.

Kaila Sachse (31:15.46)
Those are brilliant, brilliant and very important. So Roger, where can people find you? Tell us a little bit about Restaurant Rockstars so that we can provide some extra value here.

Roger (31:26.498)
Well, besides being in the restaurant space, if anyone is aspiring to start a business of any kind, I do some personal business coaching and I will help any business put these systems in place or even optimize their profits in any industry. I've consulted in numerous different industries, but you can reach me at Roger, which is spelled R O G E R at restaurant rockstars.com. If you want to email me personally.

But if there's something you're interested in talking to me about about starting a business, I'm happy to just jump on a call with you. If you email me there, I'm happy to set up a no obligation call. We'll just jump on a call. But You can also get a better sense of who I am at rogerbeaudoin.com. And that is spelled R-O-G-E-R-B-E-A-U-D-O-I-N.com. And you can also get in touch with me through that website. So that's kind of how you can reach me.

Kaila Sachse (32:20.175)
I'll add those to the show notes for anybody listening and Roger, thank you so much for sharing your wisdom with us. I am so excited for the future of your daughters, for the future of Restaurant Rockstars, and for anybody who's listening. If you reach out to Roger, it sounds like he's your guy to help you.

Roger (32:35.895)
Yeah, you're right Kaila it's all about a balance in life and and no matter what you do if you've got children You really need to find that balance because those years I don't need to tell anyone that has kids they just go by so quickly and every moment is precious and Wouldn't it be amazing if you could have a successful business and a successful family life and have a

treasure of memories that you'll never forget. Have family trips and if you've got a successful business you can do that. And then you can encourage your kids to either follow in your footsteps or do whatever their dreams are.

Kaila Sachse (33:06.511)
What a dream, Roger. It has been a pleasure. Thank you so much for being on the show.

Roger (33:10.968)
Thank you, Kaila My pleasure.