From Pharmacy to Biscuits: Lauren Coulter’s Recipe for Purpose-Driven Leadership

Lauren Coulter didn’t plan to be a restaurant leader—but she’s become one of the most intentional voices in hospitality today.

In this episode, the Co-Founder and Chief Biscuit Eater of Biscuit Belly shares her journey from pharmacy to franchising, how she’s scaled a people-first brunch brand, and what it means to lead with “ruthless hospitality.”

We explore everything from team development and franchising culture to real community engagement—and how to hire for the things you can’t teach.

🔍 Topics Covered:
 00:00 Morning Rituals and Culinary Adventures
 04:05 From Pharmacy to Restaurant: A Leap of Faith
 06:48 Building a Restaurant Empire: Lessons Learned
 10:15 The Art of Hospitality: Creating Memorable Experiences
 12:56 Balancing Culture and Operations in Franchising
 26:25 Ruthless Hospitality and Coaching Dynamics
 33:01 Fostering Internal Team Growth
 38:13 Community Engagement and Brand Values
 44:57 Leadership Horizons and Personal Growth

🎧 If you’re growing a brand with heart—or thinking about taking the leap—this one’s for you.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Lauren Coulter
• 4:05 Pharmacy to Restaurants: The Pivot
• 9:02 Scaling Restaurant Concepts Successfully
• 14:12 Modern Southern Hospitality Defined
• 20:42 Balancing Culture with Franchise Growth
• 27:36 Building Team and Community Leadership
• 38:42 Future Vision and Leadership Table
• 45:01 Final Thoughts and Contact Information

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:05

Welcome to the Leadership Table, where conversations inspire, lead and elevate. I'm your host, jason E Brooks. Each episode, I sit down with leaders across the hospitality world to uncover real stories, strategies and tools that help you lead stronger, scale smarter and build a team your guests will never forget. Today's guest is Lauren Coulter, co-founder and chief biscuit eater at Biscuit Belly. Her journey is one of bold, pivots and intentional leadership From a career in pharmacy to launching and scaling a chef-driven, fast, casual brunch brand. Lauren's story is packed with lessons about growth, culture and doing business with purpose. We're talking about how she defines modern Southern hospitality, how she's kept culture intact while franchising, and what it takes to scale a brand that still feels personal. Let's get into it. One thing I do have to let you know is that I went to the gym this morning. Well, I went to the Y gym same difference. So I'm like, okay, let me go, stop by Biscuit Belly. So I went out to Fort Mill and I went and picked up.

Speaker 1: 1:24

Yes, I'm in Charlotte. So I picked up a mama's boy, a side of turkey sausage and a black coffee and I got to say a biscuit. Belly biscuit is one of the rare biscuits that it is absolutely needed that you need a knife and fork with, because that thing that thing was a monster, an amazing, gorgeous, beautiful, tasty monster. But that thing was giant. Oh my gosh, what in the world?

Speaker 2: 2:00

I love that. I'm so glad. How was your experience?

Speaker 1: 2:04

the experience was good. There were probably eight people in the dining room when I got there. I think I got there just after 8 am, got in, grabbed the menu, walked to the front, placed my order, nice and simple, got my coffee, had a seat. The server, or runner, brought the food out and said, oh, you look so happy. And I was like, yes, because you are carrying a mountain and put that mountain on my table.

Speaker 1: 2:38

And I snapped a few photos and I was like this is amazing, but no food was good. I was eyeing either the brisket biscuits or the fire in your belly. But I went safer and went to a mama's boy and it did not disappoint bigger biscuits.

Speaker 2: 2:55

So it's got all those different flavors, all those different items and just the combination is delicious and very filling. So you made a good choice.

Speaker 1: 3:12

I didn't. I was thinking well, I'll go for something simple. When that came out, I said wow, simplicity, this is amazing.

Speaker 2: 3:25

Yes, a fire in your belly is much more simple, but you have to have a taste for a little hot. You know something spicy. So I think you made the best choice for this call, so good job.

Speaker 1: 3:37

A little kicky in the mouth. I'll take it. I'll take it, Okay. So I've been looking forward to this call. I want to jump right on in. So what sparked your leap from pharmacy into the world of restaurants? And to do that? What kind of mindset shift did you have to make to take that kind of change?

Speaker 2: 4:08

you have to make to take that kind of change. I would love to sit here and tell you that there was this big aha moment of let's do restaurants and here's why. And you know something kind of big and boisterous in our life, but really I mean, chad and I are very simple people. We opened a small business while we were still both working, so I was working retail at the time. I shifted into pharmacy at a big insurance company here in Louisville and he was working as a teacher at a pharmacy school and so when you're fresh out of school and you're used to studying a million hours or he did a residency, so you're fresh out of school and you're used to studying a million hours, or heated a residency, so you're used to working all these hours to then go to a job that's a nine to five-ish was easy. All of a sudden, we had all this capacity in our life and if you meet Chad and I'm sure you know people like this and you might even be one of these people he doesn't like to sit still. So all of a sudden it was well, let's find something to do, let's find something to do. And so we opened up Louisville's first paint and drink place. Have you ever seen these?

Speaker 2: 5:16

At the time, it was called Uptown Art. I don't think it exists in the state that. It was when we opened it back in 2011, I believe, but that was just something fun that we could kind of do on the side. We grew it to a second location, and it did really well. It was the first of its kind here. I think everyone in Louisville has a painted Florida Lee or Sucks City Skyline somewhere in their home, and we, though, saw that it was probably a fad, and so, after two, two and a half years, we looked to exit it, and at that time, we were like you know, we've got this chunk of cash, and we were young. We don't really have anything that we need to put it towards. We're used to living life like college students, you know, and so we decided to open a restaurant, and that was truly. I mean, we looked around our city. There's a lot of bourbon here in Louisville, a lot of craft beer, but there wasn't a place that was a cool, low-maintenance wine spot a bit more approachable, with good food.

Speaker 1: 6:27

Louvino.

Speaker 2: 6:29

Louvino. Yes, that's how Louvino was born. We I think that Louvino, while I didn't participate as much on the business side, I was usually just a sounding board for my husband. Business side I was usually just a sounding board for my husband but he, you know, just learning the importance of finding the right people, kind of came from that group.

Speaker 2: 6:56

Our chef that we hired literally before we ever opened Lubino, Chad, met Chef Tavis Tavis Rockwell. You said you visited Biscuit Belly this morning. You told me that earlier and so there is some menu items named for him the Rockwell, the Rockwell Supreme. He helped create the Biscuit Belly menu, Lubino. It was all about local dishes. About half of our menu was the same at all of our stores. We grew it to five locations and then the other half was just really unique to what the city around them liked. So we have some. We had some in Louisville, we had one in Cincinnati and two in Indianapolis area. So definitely gave the chef an opportunity to be very whimsical and creative.

Speaker 2: 7:43

We changed up the menu quarterly-ish, just kind of seasonally. So it was a really a fun experience, but a totally different beast. I mean full service, nighttime, 60, 70 wines by the glass, lots of training involved when you've got that many wines, and so it was just, I don't know Chad jokes. I mean, I worked at a fast food chicken joint where I grew up Okay, Other than that, like throwing chicken in a fryer and throwing it in a box and giving it out. The first night that we owned Louvino was both of our first night working at a real restaurant, and so you know you've got like farm D's, cleaning glassware and running around and talking to people and just engaging, and I think really that's what it's about right the experience and how people feel when they're at your restaurant, and I think all those learnings certainly helped as we decided to move into doing a company like Biscuit Belly.

Speaker 1: 8:52

Now, whenever you speak, you make things sound so easy but so challenging. At the same time, you weave throughout both sides of that fence, Like a lot of restaurant owners want to grow to five locations. You spoke through that part like, yeah, so we opened up Louvino and then we grew to five locations and we started Biscuit and we all know it's not that easy.

Speaker 1: 9:22

But it does sound like it was a really good formula at the time that helped you to catapult to those five locations and then get into Biscuit Belly. So talk to me about some of those lessons and some of those realities that you learned that made that possible.

Speaker 2: 9:47

Well, I think, have you ever heard the adage? You know, not every chef needs to own a restaurant. I think that what Chad did really well was find people who could do what they do really well and let them fly. So what's the biggest issue in restaurants? Most restaurant people will say people are the biggest issue, and I felt really lucky and privileged to be able to say that the people that we hired at Luvino generally they stuck with us, our management team there, as we grew, location to location. We were able to pull people and help grow and develop them.

Speaker 2: 10:35

And look, it's easy to sit here in 2025 and kind of say we opened five of those. It was over quite a period of time. So we opened our first Luvino in 2014. And I believe, the last one in 2019. So we're talking about five years and again, it's almost this idea of you know, in business world they talk about a minimum viable product and we had this minimum viable product in this restaurant.

Speaker 2: 11:10

Number one we were cheap on the build out. I mean, it was Chad designing it all. It was very simple. We focused hard on the menu, the food and the experience, and so then you figure out what you're doing right, you stick with those things. We focused hard on the menu, the food and the experience, and so then you figure out what you're doing, right, you stick with those things, you change things and you grow, and I think he just always had this way of surrounding himself, and it's even what we do now with people that are so much smarter than us.

Speaker 2: 11:42

So you say, hey, this is what I bring to the table, this kind of business acumen, and how can I apply it to this area?

Speaker 2: 11:53

And so now he's kind of is looked at as a restaurant expert. He's a restaurant business expert, but he's not back there baking those biscuits. So we we definitely have done a good job at finding people that can be equally as passionate, I think, and and really take on what we're trying to do, like here's what we're trying to do, here's this vision. He's the classic visionary and can get us all really engaged around this vision that he's creating. But I think, to do that I mean, I remember my mom telling me this when we were planning a wedding you don't need to do everything, you just need to hire people to do what they do well, and I feel like that has applied to our life, and so that really, I think that's probably been the biggest thing to help launch us. You know, continue, make it so that we hire people that can do exactly what we do great, so that then we can shift to do something else.

Speaker 1: 13:12

But then we start bringing in all these people that do the exact same thing that we do. The things that are missing just still keep being missing. But your mama said it right. She said hire people that do what they do great, and then you bring them on, versus always trying to hire people just like yourself.

Speaker 1: 13:34

And so I think that is a great leadership lesson and I know and of course you preach Biscuit Belly isn't just about the food. One of the first things that you asked me was how was the experience? So how do you define modern Southern hospitality and how does that show up across your brand, from the kitchen to the guest experience?

Speaker 2: 14:02

I think that that is something we focus hard on. That I mean, 2024 was the year of hospitality and you go into. I think every restaurateur would say, oh, I want this to be a great experience, but what does that actually mean to the guest? And so we spent a lot of time really trying to figure out. You know, there's performative layers of this versus very natural, casual and intentional and really kind of separating the two. I don't want someone to come in and you know you'll go to places and it's like, you know, welcome to X or whatever where it's just rattled off right and we come to expect it, but that doesn't mean that I'll have a welcoming experience.

Speaker 2: 14:56

So how do we take the words of like, comfort, care, engagement, joy? I mean, in this world that we're in right now, like, how important is it that people can come in, have a seat at a table surround themselves with people that they love, or that maybe they're having a job interview or just have this kind of comforting, peaceful experience and have it naturally? And so we've looked at this a couple different ways. There's definitely things that we have to get across to the guests. When they come in, they're ordering at the counter. We are bringing it out to them. We have this long spiel Us outside of ordering. We want it to be a full service experience, as if you're at, you know, a guest at your mama or your grandmama's house and they are making this delicious food for you. So I think you even mentioned some of the food that you got was pretty big and hearty and that you needed a knife and a fork, and even just how it's plated For a biscuit, for a biscuit. So even how it's plated, we want that to be beautiful.

Speaker 2: 16:15

So, you know, really diving into every aspect of the guest experience and people often think the only time that you can be hospitable is when you're talking to the guest, and I wholeheartedly disagree. How can we be hospitable while they're waiting in line in our queue line, which sometimes is out the door? For us, that means on a busy day when it's sweltering hot, like last Saturday, you're making some little mini lattes and running them out, you know, at the right time, maybe making some bonuts that they can enjoy while they're eating. Last weekend, I had the pleasure of doing an event with the Peach Truck. Have you ever heard of the Peach Truck?

Speaker 1: 16:54

No, I have not.

Speaker 2: 16:56

So there's I've followed them for years. It's a husband-wife team. They grow, you know, bring all these Georgia peaches up throughout different places in the South that don't get them. And they have a stop at one of our locations and they were 30 minutes late. So they had people preorder their peaches I mean boxes and people come and they get four or five boxes and they're from 9 to 1030, and then they leave and they go to their next stop, and they were there from 9 to 1030. And then they leave and they go to their next stop and they were 30 minutes late. And so for 30 minutes I have these people lined up and we're just slinging biscuits with peach stuff on it, really talking up what we do, giving them samples and then taking their trash.

Speaker 2: 17:40

I think every little piece like that that you do it just helps. That is what the overall guest experience should be. So when they're in the queue line, I mean how do we better level up that experience Once they sit down? How do we level up their engagement at the table? We don't have to deal with the whole like bringing out a check, but in some books I've read you know there's a whole. How do you be more hospitable around when you bring the check out, and so just rethinking each of those was really important for us and I think we've dug in and tried to figure out, on more levels than what most would, how to make that a Southern experience, southern hospitable experience, and I think we've done a pretty dang good job.

Speaker 1: 18:36

You absolutely have, and the way that you describe hospitality, I think, nails it as well. There's times, as innovators, as thinkers, as leaders, managers, coaches, we tend to overthink the execution. And yes, there is absolutely hospitality and it is a formulated process of thinking through things. But when we go to land that hospitality plane, I think that some brands tend to overshoot the runway.

Speaker 1: 19:14

They tend to overthink it If we scaled it back some. Hospitality is still human nature. Hospitality is still human nature. It's still no matter what island, what continent, what language. There is a part of being at someone's mother's house, someone's grandmother's house and what they do in order to make you feel welcome, from when you walk in to when you leave. So there's some of it. Yes, it is hospitality. Some of it is just pure human nature and how we allow ourselves to be human to each other within moments of the 30 minute late pizza truck. How do you still have human nature versus thinking through? That's not a part of my hospitality steps. Yes, there is that, but there's also just being human, all right. So how do you balance being a culture carrier and brand storyteller with the day-to-day operational discipline that growth and franchising require? You are a master juggler. How do you do that?

Speaker 2: 20:46

This is hard. I mean, I think this is the biggest challenge that no one talks about in franchising. They talk about, you know, making sure the operations are consistent, making sure the you know the experience is similar, but how do we really almost obnoxiously push off these values and these things that we carry with our franchise partners? And I think that my husband would say it's bad. I kind of think it's good. We have not been super successful from a franchise development perspective. We've got three franchise partners. They've each done two stores, and so I mean that's great. We've done eight stores and building that pipeline has been more of a challenge, but in a way I think it's been a blessing because we have learned what pieces we need to be diehard, no excuse, no nonsense about. And then we've learned what things can we give and take on. You know this is a relationship. We are not, you know, a million brand, a million location brand, with all these systems and perfect ordering figured out. There's a lot of these things that we're building this car as we're driving it to a degree Now. We've got processes, we've got systems in place that are ahead, I believe, for our size, but still, I mean we are 100% in growth mode and so being now being ruthless about the hospitality piece even when these people come and visit us, I think is the most critical thing. I mean, the best way to sell a franchise is to have current franchise partners tout your praises. You know, and the only way that's gonna happen is if we are all on the same page early, early, early, and you stay that way.

Speaker 2: 23:07

My role day day. I don't do a whole lot with franchise partners. Again, I leave the operational piece up to them. But you know, when people fill out a contact us form on viscabellycom, I get that. When you know my husband is psychotically looking at the reviews. We use a system called Ovation. We are engaged and I care more, as you can probably tell about an experience than I do, whether you know the coffee was at exactly 128 degrees, which you'd be surprised. What we get complaints about but I don't know to me that is one of the biggest challenges is taking this culture and this thing that we've created and trusting that it's emulated appropriately at other places.

Speaker 2: 24:02

Now what I love the franchise partners that we have in Alabama. They are kind of the same group. They've opened more in North Carolina, but it's technically two different owners, so I call them two different folks. So I love that. They are incredibly successful because they do kind of owner-operator models and I just I love that. So when they come up and evaluate, when they were first evaluating us, they sent probably six different groups of people up here because they wanted to figure out the right fit for their organization Like who who's going to run Biscuit Belly? And they entrusted it to someone that's been there, you know, working with them for 10, 12 years in other capacities, at their other concepts. So that has been just learning kind of what sort of franchise partner we want is a critical learning for us. You know Lots.

Speaker 2: 25:03

I'm sure we've done a lot of things wrong. I think we've done a lot of things right, but this is something that I think we will continue to learn. We actually have done a deal recently with someone in Texas, in Houston, and she has never owned a restaurant before and we are used to people who have been inundated with the restaurant industry but we've also seen kind of the bad that comes from that Like, so we're going to try this. She's been, she's had like major business responsibility, p&l responsibility, but she's just never been in the weeds on the food side. And so our hope is hey, this is a, you know, a clean slate. We can build and teach some of these things. She was the right personality, she was like the right character. We believe we can teach the systems and the operational pieces that come with it. Well, that come with having a disc of belly.

Speaker 1: 26:04

I got to say I actually worked with a franchise group out of Alabama and you have to be very savvy out there in order to really be successful. But I got to say my listeners better watch out for Lauren Coulter, aka Ruthless Hospitality no, ruthless Hospitality. I loved that. Ruthless Hospitality no, ruthless Hospitality. I loved that Ruthless Hospitality. It sounds like Ruthless Records back from the 90s. Okay, so now you talked a lot about finding the pieces within your franchise partners that have that right leadership aspect, the right management style. But there's a lot of coaching that goes into it as well. How do you balance some of the coaching with your internal team? You know you've spoken through how you're working with the franchise partners. You've spoken through how you're working with the franchise partners, finding the right locations, getting the right mix, things like that. But let's switch gears just a little bit.

Speaker 2: 27:34

How do you focus on your internal team in order to make sure that they're getting their growth as well? You know, the blessing and the curse of a small brand is that there is all sorts of room for development. Our team we have a exec team of my husband and I, a VP of training, a VP of operations and a director of marketing, and that's it. We have one additional marketing team member and then we get lucky and get some interns here and there, and then we have someone that serves in kind of a culinary coach, culinary director role. She does most of our like testing for new items and when we're looking at potential vendor changes, she helps with a lot of that work. And so our team, I mean in its entirety, is eight people, and so we aren't talking about, you know, a plethora of humans here. Development, I mean there's two things here. Number one we again have hired people who are a lot smarter than us, so it was really important to us from a training aspect to find someone who had actually helped build a concept. The woman who serves as our VP of training is insane, incredible Lisa Dwelly. She worked for Texas Roadhouse when they had store. I think she started there at store three and then, you know, left when there was hundreds in place and she was the VP of training there. She also worked as the VP of training at Torchy's Tacos. When they were acquired it was they let go of their whole training department and so we had no plans to hire a VP of operations. We met her Within about eight minutes of talking to her. Chad and I are like squeezing each other's legs, like we have to have her. And you know, we're a startup, we have no cash. We're like we spend every bit that we get in, but we're gonna figure this out. And so that decision of hiring some of those key people who I don't think that they need development I think that that sometimes some of these team members they're just looking for like something new and to impart their insane knowledge in places they can actually make a difference, and we're like, yes, bring it on. So I believe that that served us well in those capacities.

Speaker 2: 30:04

Our marketing director she had had a couple different roles, but I think she's probably grown and developed the most. You know, at different ages and stages of life, people want different things, right? Our VP of training has two daughters that are about to be seniors in high school, and so she is ready. She's planning for different things in life than our marketing director who has just recently gotten married and potentially may choose to have kids may not. But growth, education and development overall I mean growth, education and just Learning is really how we spark joy in our marketing director, whereas you know her teaching, her, helping, but then also her being able to like, say goodbye and hang out with her daughters that she's not going to, you know, in a couple more, in one more year, she's going to be sending them to college, like her, priorities are different, and so for us, since we're so small, we are able to kind of figure out what works and what inspires each person individually.

Speaker 2: 31:17

For our VP of Ops, I know that what inspires him is to be able to log off and be like I'm out, and so for him, you know, once every three to four months, he's going to take a week off, recharge himself, and he comes back just ready, ready to like, help and engage with our team members, and for that week, I mean my job is to be him. You know, you contact me, you contact me, you contact chad, you leave him alone, don't call him. So we, I think know what our team values and there's so much conversation around this right around millennials and, uh, whatever the next gen?

Speaker 2: 32:03

gen z gen x yes, yes, what things they value, and luckily we're at a point where we can really know what they value and we can actually act on that. It's not always monetary, is the amazing thing for a startup, you know. It's not always about dollars, it's about time off, it's about not being bothered when I'm off. You know, some of those things are so much more important to our team and we take that seriously.

Speaker 1: 32:33

Internal space to know the individual, not just their title, not just your goals, in which your goals as a brand and as a person is very important, but you're getting to understand where are they at within their life, within their career, within their family. Now how do we make what what they do well and create the space with what we need to make sure that it's being delivered on both sides of that highway? That is amazing. I also want to get into, though, how you lead through your community. You have spanned out from your area into different markets and I hear that you do Veterans Day meals, local partnerships so it's clear that community matters to you and the brand. Why is that such a central part of how you and your franchise partners lead?

Speaker 2: 33:36

Well, I think that it's really important for Biscuit Belly to define what is important for us, Like what are the things we want to stand for? And I'll be candid with you, I mean, the veterans piece was looking around, seeing what our community loves to get behind and kind of rinse and repeating what we've seen other people do well. So, yes, we do Free Biscuit for veterans on Veterans Day. It's insanity at all of our stores. But I think when you own a business, you get hit up by every organization. I mean I'm sure you experience this Especially restaurants.

Speaker 1: 34:32

Because, if you think about it, restaurant owners and managers are the most accessible. Yes, managers and owners out of any other kind of industry. You can't walk into a doctor's office or a retail office and always get to speak with the owner. At restaurants, we get sold to more than anything else. Sorry, but it's just so true. Yes.

Speaker 2: 34:57

I mean it's insane how many requests we get and you want to help everyone, but at some point you got to say no, and so for us, we did spend some time early on, at least for our team here in Louisville, asking the questions what's important to you, team member, what do you want us to get behind? If we have, you know at the beginning, if we have a thousand dollars that we can give to things, how should we, how do you want us to allocate it? It's not what Lauren necessarily wants to allocate it to, but what's important to you all. And so some learnings that I had was that our team, shocker, was really interested in helping with food insecurities or you know specifically things that help and target kids. So just where we're located, you know there's pieces of that, and so we've tried to figure out how do we do that. For us, it's been collaborating with companies that will come get like, your waste, your food waste, good and bad, abyss of belly, we don't create that much food waste, and so. But when we do, especially from like, create that much food waste and so, but when we do, especially from like let's call it events where we go somewhere, maybe we take a thousand biscuits because we're told that's how many people will be there, but then only 400 people show up and so you've got all this leftover food. You know how can we get that redistributed in a way that's good for the community? We do a lot of that and then our franchise partners we kind of let you know choose how they and their people want to give back.

Speaker 2: 36:36

I always tell people that are making asks, and also it never fails that they're like hey, can I, can you write us a check for a thousand dollars? And it's like well, you know, I we always say I'm rich in biscuits Like how can I give you food? Because that's what we do, right, and I want to again, a company that is so focused around experience, writing you a check doesn't give me the experience that I'm wanting, that I want my, that my team wants, you know. So, being able to deliver food, bring it to. You know teachers on their first week of school coming back, or, oh my gosh, we've done so many things. You know young women, children, kids, their you know events that are happening through the summer. That is more experience driven and it's definitely more likely to get a yes from me and from my team.

Speaker 2: 37:42

So, on that note, I mean I'm sure you experienced this, like people that are like, oh, I haven't been here, I need to come check it out. Will you donate? No, only the people who I know like that are coming in here, I'll donate a gift card or something, but other than that, you know, if there wasn't hard food, I got to. We got to know them, they got to be a regular, no stranger danger?

Speaker 1: 38:06

Exactly, no-transcript. What's on your leadership?

Speaker 2: 38:32

horizon. What are you most excited about for you personally and Biscuit Belly For me personally? I'm really leaning into my voice a bit more the table, maybe, thoughts around food and hospitality, and you know how you bridge some of these gaps that others might be interested to hear or know about. I think it's really important in this space to help. You know other women who. I mean the deals and stuff like that you can get with multiple locations versus one. I would love for us to see, like I've talked about, building a little group of women like that own one restaurant to think through how can we be like a GPO of sorts. You know where we're all. You know they're all going to get use the same flower and then they all get a discount.

Speaker 2: 39:30

I feel like building better business. Women is important. That is my personal piece. I'm trying to do more in terms of speaking engagements and podcasts, whatever is really needed. I mean, people ask me to speak. My husband likes speaking sometimes, but generally he forwards things to me or he'll say not it because it's just not his cup of tea, and I think that we're doing something really cool and I think it's important that we really, you know, yell it to the rafters, and so building that for me personally, hopefully help building our brand is key For Biscuit Belly.

Speaker 2: 40:20

I finally believe that we're going to open my husband says anywhere from three to 13 stores next year. We've got a lot of things coming out of the ground and good things happening. From a pipeline perspective, I feel like with the processes that we have put in place, we are ready for that now, like our team is like let's go, we can do this, whereas a year and a half ago I don't know if we could say that. So if we would have gotten the pipeline in then that we have now, it could be a mess. So I'm excited about not being scared to bring that on and for how much we can do like without necessarily bringing on more bodies. So more to come on that front, we've got some fun announcements in the works.

Speaker 1: 41:20

So, yay, well, I am excited for you. Your brand is amazing and we are getting close to the signature questions that I ask of all of my guests here on the leadership table. So if you could sit at a leadership table with three other leaders, whether alive or from history, who would you choose and why?

Speaker 2: 41:48

My choices are very different. So my first one is my girl, emily Lay. She is a planner maker. She makes planners and is all about simplifying. She's a mom, mom life, but her company is called Simplified and I psychotically fangirl her. I love my paper planner and I just think she's so intelligent and brings a lot of just knowledge but then also real life. You know, I'm a mom, I'm struggling sort of things to the table and I would just love to meet her and hang out. I'm like we should be friends. Why are we not friends? And then my second person is I'm sure maybe you've gotten this before is Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I just want to. I love a woman that can use kind of a puppet effect of like she helped increase rights for women by using a case that was against a man, and so I just I mean that is puppeteering.

Speaker 1: 43:09

She is the ultimate chess player. Yes, she is the master puppeteer and ultimate chess player. You are not kidding.

Speaker 2: 43:17

I just want to know. I don't know, she was always kind of witty in her TV, you know when you would see spots of her and I don't know. I mean, she's just an awesome human. I would love to have dinner with her. And then, lastly, is will giardia? I I always say giardia. That's from my pharmacy school days. It's like close enough, close enough yeah, he wrote the bookity which really Gadira. Gadira, I cannot.

Speaker 1: 43:49

Yes. So, embarrassing, mr Gadira.

Speaker 2: 43:54

That book really helped change my thinking about some things and really helped us, you know, gave some examples of how we could dig in on our guest experience. So you know, he's worked for Danny Meyer, just overall, best of the best, and I would just love to have him come eat with us and tell me everything like audit us, tell me everything that we could improve upon. But good, I mean good people, good good dudes. So so those are my three.

Speaker 1: 44:28

I love your personal board there. That is a mega table there. Okay, so for the last question At the leadership table, of course, we believe in conversations that inspire, lead and elevate. As you went through your journey, I know you've had lots of conversations that were pivoting moments within what you do, how you do, and there's going to be more. But what's one conversation in your career that you believe profoundly shaped how you show up as a leader today?

Speaker 2: 45:07

I had a woman. It wasn't one-on-one, it was more of a group thing. I'm in a group of women who I'm the youngest, and a lot of them are retired and just living their best lives. But you want to talk about chess checkers? I mean, I'm thinking about the next three to five years, and they are saying, well, how is that going to prepare you for, you know, a board that you want to be on? I mean, they are, they are thinking way down the line, but I don't recall who exactly said it.

Speaker 2: 45:45

But one of them said something to the effect of the best leaders are not the ones who have all the answers, they're the ones that know to ask the right questions, and I think that that has layered in really nicely with this idea of hiring people smarter than you.

Speaker 2: 46:06

And there's a girl on our team who she does all of our point of sale stuff and integrations with third party and online orders and all the things, and people always comment that she asks really good questions, and sometimes I drag her to meetings that she probably shouldn't be in because I'm like you're thinking about how this impacts other people. You know how this is impacting other things that I'm not thinking about. So I think that that has probably changed how I think about the minutiae of, like, what we're doing day to day. And when you're growing, you're always communicating. It doesn't matter what's happening in a company. Ultimately, the root cause of most struggles is lack of communication. Bad communication, you know, I truly believe it's like 90% of the issues are communication related, and so hiring people that are smarter than me so that they can help ask the right questions, that's it to me. That is like the thing. If I could nail that, I would be like I'm a dang good leader, you know.

Speaker 1: 47:25

Well, it sounds like you are well on your way already. Have you ever heard of Whirl Women in Restaurant Leadership?

Speaker 2: 47:34

I went there this past.

Speaker 1: 47:36

Excellent, good, good, good.

Speaker 2: 47:39

I want to speak at it or be on something at it. It's in Charleston next year and I want to go. We have a store in Somerville, about 20 minutes outside of Charleston, so definitely going, going to bring a team member or two this time and I just I love it. They're great. I do a couple of the online events webinar things.

Speaker 1: 48:05

I actually do. I am a contributing writer for FSR magazine and one of the key people that that helps keep world going. One is Callie Evergreen and then and then Satine Donor. They both are large parts key figures within world and FSR, QSR Magazine, WT, WH Media does a great job of creating that space, creating that table to not just call out women who are leaders but to help grow all leadership within every genre, every segment, leadership within every genre, every segment, and they have some amazing sessions that really move restaurant leadership forward, man or woman. So absolutely I'm glad that you've been to one, that you're planning on going. Next year I will be at the QSR Evolution Conference as well. I'll be moderating a panel and sitting on a second panel at the same time launching my second book, Every Team Needs Coaching. So that's going to be this September as well. So, Lauren, before we wrap up, where can listeners connect with you or learn more about Biscuit Belly's story and future opportunities?

Speaker 2: 49:33

I've got a couple of things. I've got a couple ways. I'm on Instagram and I'm very like I will write people back. It's me managing my.

Speaker 1: 49:44

You know my tens of followers on Instagram, not AI.

Speaker 2: 49:48

No, no, you know my tens of followers on instagram, not ai, no, no, obviously I'm on linkedin, but I I mean I'll, candidly speaking linkedin can be overwhelming because there's a hundred thousand people trying to sell you stuff on there and it's just. It doesn't totally spark joy for me, but okay. And then Biscuit Belly. I mean biscuitbellycom has loads of good info, lots of good material.

Speaker 1: 50:17

So always plug that Good stuff. Well, lauren, thanks for bringing your heart, your grit and leadership to the table today and to everyone listening. If this episode sparked something for you, take a second to subscribe, leave a review and share it with someone building a purpose-driven brand, just like Biscuit Belly. You'll find more leadership tools and resources at jasonebrookscom. Until next time, keep leading with impact and remember, manage, lead, coach, repeat. Lauren, thank you so much.

Speaker 2: 50:55

Thank you.