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Welcome to "Bean There, Done That!" your essential podcast for mastering the world of hospitality. Hosted by industry expert, Phillip Di Bella, we cut through the noise to deliver straightforward, actionable insights and strategies.
Each episode explores the powerful interplay of knowledge and connections, presenting real-life case studies from Australia's thriving hospitality scene. We feature thought leaders who share their experiences, ensuring you have the answers you need when facing a business challenge.
Whether you're a budding cafe owner or a seasoned hospitality professional, "Bean There, Done That!" is your hub for insights, inspiration, and industry connections. We're here to help you turn hurdles into opportunities for growth and success.
Join our growing community with the hashtags #BeanThereDoneThat, #HospitalityHub, #CafeInsights, and #CoffeeCommune. With "Bean There and Done That," your roadmap to hospitality success is just a listen away.
[TRANSCRIPT]
**0:00:02** - (Kelly Many): You are listening to Bean There, Done that, we present some of the smartest people connected to the business of coffee, people who've succeeded in the tough grind of hospitality by staying ahead of the rest. So join us as we explore the secrets to their success and help you accelerate your business. This show is brought to you by The Coffee Commune, where the coffee community comes to collaborate. Enjoy the show.
**0:00:34** - (B): Hi and welcome to another episode of Bean there and Done that. And today I have the wonderful Kelly Many artists with me, who's an organisational psychologist who has been working with us for many, many years. Kelly, welcome to the show.
**0:00:45** - (Kelly Many): Thank you very much. I'm really excited to be here. This is the first time I'm doing something like this with, well, you know.
**0:00:52** - (B): We'Ve done it plenty of times without microphones. Microphones in front of us won't be different. But today we're going to talk about mindset matters and how to become mentally stronger. It's going to be tailored specifically for cafe owners who have been facing challenges, obviously, of increased expenses, staff shortages, long hours, and we're finding that people are just mentally worn out. And so I thought we'll get one of the best in the business, Kelly, to talk about mindset matters and how to become mentally stronger. So, Kelly, first question for you. As a cafe owner who faced significant challenges like COVID and increased expenses and staff shortages, long hours and all the rest of it, how important is it to develop a resilient mindset in overcoming these obstacles?
**0:01:31** - (Kelly Many): Absolutely. It is a number one aspect of being a cafe owner now, and also just a leader generally, is that leaders are facing and cafe owners are facing multiple crises at the one time, so you could easily break under those conditions. And I think resilient mindset in itself means that you're able to manage what's coming, not take it personally, take a step back, even breathing for a moment, and then looking at some positive steps to go forward and problem solve.
**0:02:05** - (Kelly Many): So the resiliency is not only that bounce back, but it's the ability to have the mindset to not narrow in your thinking, but open up your thinking to go, how can I handle this better? How can I make sure that I'm not going to be just succumbed to the waves of obstacles that are coming towards me, that I can just stand firm and realise, what is it that I can do?
**0:02:30** - (B): Yeah. And it sounds cliche, doesn't it, the whole resilient. But one of the ways to look at that is the closed mindset or the fixed mindset versus the growth mindset and unpack that for us, because there's a lot of work around it. Carol Dweck, obviously, is leading the way and has done for many years. So for a cafe owner, in simple terms, not that cafe owners are simple by any means, but in simple terms, how do you unpack that the difference between a closed mindset or a fixed mindset and someone with an open growth mindset.
**0:02:56** - (Kelly Many): Absolutely. So closed mindset, I guess your first position is no standstill status quo. It's always been like this. A growth mindset is an open mindset to say, what can I learn from this? How can I get something out of this? It's looking for the opportunities. Underlying that is growth mindset is looking at the opportunity. Closed mindset is looking at it's kind of fear based. It's a fear based avoidant thinking.
**0:03:26** - (Kelly Many): And so in all honesty, when you have a closed mindset, you're actually not only affecting your mind, but you're affecting your body. So what we see is research has shown that that closed mindset, it's creating a negative space and then that has an impact on your body. If I could share personally, my husband, he's got fruit shop, deli, commercial kitchen. So we're talking in the same sort of space. You're actually getting an insight also into the dining room table conversations.
**0:03:54** - (Kelly Many): I'm sure he won't mind between the poor guy's got a wife as a psychologist, but this is, you know and we talk about what is the impact and he gives me stories about Alzheimer, Fruto's, stopping work, retiring and then having a heart attack the next day almost. And that's what we're kind of facing here, is if we and it's quite serious if you don't understand the power of a growth mindset, of being open and looking at the learning experiences, not only does it affect your business, but it also affects you personally. And I think that's really just putting it out there, it's good.
**0:04:32** - (B): And thank you for sharing that because in the spirit of the topic, mindset matters and what we want out of this, what comes out of the funnel after this podcast is people to say, hey, mindset does matter and how can I become mentally stronger? So thank you for sharing because as cafe owners, they fall into common mindset traps, especially in challenging times. And I talk about there's two types of people that you can link back to fixed mindset and growth mindset, and that's those that play the victim and go, poor me, poor me, look how shit everything is. Or those that just get on their bike and pedal. Give them some tips, especially that you come from experience with family, businesses and all the rest of it in hospitality.
**0:05:05** - (B): What are some tips that people can really just adhere to every day to overcome that mindset trap?
**0:05:10** - (Kelly Many): Yeah. First off, queue into your own thinking patterns. So it's a simple thing. When you wake up in the morning, what are the first things that you're saying to yourself? Are those things positively influencing your day? Or are you thinking about the past and how it's bringing it into your future? Are you waking up concerned, worried, disappointed, frustrated? Or are you waking up with intention, with hope, with an idea of what you want out of that day. And then at the end of the day, what are you thinking? Are you being grateful for what happened or are you over worrying? If you're in that space of worry you're just going to create more thought patterns of worry and concern and that creates more issues where you're not actually seeing the opportunities but you're just fixed on the problem, not solution orientated.
**0:06:01** - (Kelly Many): So that's one tip or trick is to start queuing into what's that recording tape that's in the back of your mind. If it's not helpful, dial it down. If it is helpful, dial it up so that's the first piece around it. Then recognising that things that are happening aren't happening to you. It is a situation, it's a task, it's an occurrence. It's almost I tell people to look at the problem away from you, not in you focus away.
**0:06:36** - (Kelly Many): And that way I like and again, I liken it to the dining room table with my husband and I. You're putting it on the table, you're not personalising. Let's say we've got an issue what's happening in front of us. That approach just helps you sort of see the issue a little bit differently.
**0:06:52** - (B): Yeah. Play the issue, not the person.
**0:06:53** - (Kelly Many): Right? Oh yeah. That's a great way of articulating what I've just said in like 2 seconds. But that's it. It's that whole looking at the way looking at that problem. I think the number one or number one area that helps with resilient mindset is the relationships that you have with people.
**0:07:11** - (B): Yeah. And that's a big one.
**0:07:12** - (Kelly Many): Connection.
**0:07:13** - (B): The connection, the emotion.
**0:07:14** - (Kelly Many): Absolutely.
**0:07:14** - (B): Which is a great you mentioned it and touched on it before, which we'll come back to it and expand on what you just said that if you don't get your mindset right, it affects you emotionally and then physically. So let's unpack that. Absolutely. If you don't have a good mindset, the emotion behind it, what are the problems and the obstacles there that people need to be aware of?
**0:07:32** - (Kelly Many): Yeah. So are you talking about the physical.
**0:07:34** - (B): Symptoms that happen from the emotions then breed into the physical symptoms?
**0:07:39** - (Kelly Many): One of the great things about humans is that emotions are contagious. One of the worst things about humans is emotions are contagious. So if we're breeding negativity, we are attracting negativity and that negativity impacts us from a physical point of view. So we know, research has shown that negative thinking impacts the nervous systems. When you have certain nervous systems that are related to that anxiety and that fear, that creates a whole cascade of issues.
**0:08:08** - (Kelly Many): We typically see heart problems, we typically see diabetes. A lot of the autoimmune system issues come through which is so tragic because cafe owners, you work long hours, intense hours. You need to be in the right mind and body to be able to deal with that. Not only are you just the delivery, you're now dealing with government expectations onto you. You're dealing with employee expectations. There's been a shift in that market of what the quickness of having to deal with these issues.
**0:08:38** - (Kelly Many): I mean, you saw it in COVID. I mean, all of a sudden, one day we're doing this, the next day we're doing that. So it is pretty important that you are aware of that mindset, how it impacts on your body and your ability to just do your work effectively.
**0:08:52** - (B): Yeah. And then something to bring awareness too, because a lot of people think, oh no, I'm mentally tough and I'm mentally strong. And what's your message to those that would classify themselves mentally strong?
**0:09:00** - (Kelly Many): That is one of the things that I specialise in. The leadership space and leaders will tell me, I'm not stressed, but your body is. Right. Your body is stressed. So regardless, your body can't fake it. So it is advantageous to have a resilient mindset because it does create a cascade for your body. But also recognising you're putting yourself into situations that are stressful, your body will react to that. So being attuned to that, and that's why I know you're a big believer in it. Meditation, calming, being present in the moment.
**0:09:32** - (Kelly Many): These are known scientific approaches and techniques that help the body and the brain to center yourself, to relax, to respond to issues which are resilient mindsets.
**0:09:44** - (B): Yeah. And in the spirit of the whole podcast where we talk about Bean there and done that, I've certainly been there. As you know, I never used to meditate. I never used to take time out.
**0:09:52** - (Kelly Many): I never used to believer now, but.
**0:09:54** - (B): I'm a believer because I went through that. I went through that. I'm mentally tough. Mentally tough. Yet my body went into anxious mode. I'd get on a plane, I'd slow down and my body go, we're not slowing down, we're going. And the heartbeat and the adrenaline kicks in. And at first you think you're having a heart attack, and then you realise it's just a panic attack, but you've got to deal with it. So again, I've been there and done that. And of course you're one of the major keys to help me through that. But tell me, this is the common thing, right? And it's not just in the cafe industry, but we're talking and this is directed at cafe owners, but lack of time. A lot of cafe owners are working twelve to 14 hours days.
**0:10:26** - (B): They're on their feet. They have to work in their business because of the rising cost of expenses. Consumers don't want to pay more or they want more for less. It's coming at them left, right and center. Somebody that says, I'm too busy, I'm too busy. I know the importance of you've got to take that five minutes or that ten minutes. Talk us through that from an expert's point of view. You're building a template for somebody. What does that look like?
**0:10:49** - (Kelly Many): First thing is to challenge your own mindset. About playing the game of time because you're going to lose. Time is finite. There's a beginning and there's an end and it will always be there. You don't have enough time, so don't play in that game. Don't play in the time game, play in the game of productivity, play in the game of effectiveness, play in the game of being right here, right now. And what I'm seeing is where I see people losing out on time is that they're trying to put so much in that and they're thinking that they're multitasking, but in effect they've lost focus.
**0:11:26** - (Kelly Many): They're doing less in that time. They're not able to close out. So I see a lot of people that have on your computer screen, you got a number of tabs open. I see people with a lot of tabs open. Nothing getting done, nothing getting finalised. I've got too much, I've got too much. You are playing in the time game and it's not on a human side.
**0:11:47** - (B): They're going too wide and not deep enough.
**0:11:49** - (Kelly Many): Absolutely.
**0:11:50** - (B): And that's something I learned and again through one of your techniques was don't go as wide, but go deeper. So go narrow and deep rather than wide and shallow. And one of the tips there that I share this with cafe owners now is because people's mindset was, well, I pay a fixed amount of lease and there's 24 hours in a day and I'm going to maximize my lease and open as much as possible. However, a lot of the analysis we've done is that if you're opening 8 hours a day but making money only for 5 hours, then you're burning cash for 3 hours. Close the 3 hours.
**0:12:17** - (B): There's a lot of cafes now that only operate from six in the morning till twelve at lunchtime or from seven till two, and they've got more time.
**0:12:24** - (Kelly Many): For themselves, so they're not playing the time game.
**0:12:27** - (B): Correct.
**0:12:27** - (Kelly Many): So that analysis where I remember talking to a restaurant owner, he started off his first restaurant and he sat down. We wanted to congratulate him, so we went to his new restaurant, we sat and dad had lunch. We had a really great time with my kids were there. He sat down at the end and we were talking and he said, look, I've done the analysis, just using your words, done the analysis. And I've got to open ten of these restaurants.
**0:12:51** - (Kelly Many): Peter and I just sort of had one of those looks that perhaps only husband and wives can get, but no one else could. We're like, wow, okay. And of course you sort of look into yourself going, oh jeez, that's amazing, I wish I could do that. But in my head husband and I are talking, just thinking, how does that work? And we came to the conclusion he's playing in the game of time, he's going to lose. He did not succeed.
**0:13:14** - (Kelly Many): This guy, unfortunately, all good intentions, but he's doing an analysis.
**0:13:18** - (B): Yeah, too wide and not deep enough.
**0:13:20** - (Kelly Many): Yeah. Just focus on the effectiveness and you can do a lot and build the foundation. Build the foundation that works for the human spirit because if you've got too many tabs open, you've got splintered thinking. When you've got splintered thinking, it's fragmented. You are not going to make really good decisions. Research has shown clear, focused vision, really purposeful building blocks. Get the foundation. Right.
**0:13:45** - (Kelly Many): Human spirit lifts you're like, yes, I've nailed that. Then you move to the next one, the next one and the next one. And that mentality. You're not playing in the game of time, are you? You're playing in the game of focus. You're playing in the game of opportunity and seeing things as they come.
**0:13:59** - (B): Yeah. His is definitely a time of less is more. The busier we get, the more that's thrown at us, the more we've got to take away, cut out. We have to cut it out and we need to focus and raise a sharp focus.
**0:14:10** - (Kelly Many): Right.
**0:14:11** - (B): Let's talk more about emotions because it's something that obviously we're all emotive. And one of my things, as you know, for 22 years in business, I keep talking about, and I'm not perfect at it by any means is try and keep the emotions ego out of your mindset. Talk me through that because you've dealt with a lot of amazing leaders and a lot of could be amazing leaders and you've dealt with a lot of emotions and egos.
**0:14:33** - (B): So the cafe owner listening that says we serve the best coffee and we're the best restaurant and we got the best menu. Why are we not busy? Talk us through emotions and ego.
**0:14:41** - (Kelly Many): Yeah. One part of it is that let's put the good news about emotions. Emotions are fantastic because it creates an emotional engagement and that's great for cafe owners to really connect with their customers and connect with their employees and emotionally connect. That means that where that comes from is that I trust you, you trust me. That's a fantastic space. And that's what we want emotions to be utilised by where people feel like through conversation.
**0:15:08** - (Kelly Many): You're not scary. I'm not fearful of you. I care for you. I want to support you. That's a great space. I want that type of emotion. Where you're talking about ego, it's where the primitive part of the brain is overriding all our other aspects of the brain. Again, it's fear based too. That part of emotion doesn't serve us well in the modern world. It served us well in the hunter and gathering days when we saw lions and tigers and bears and we had to have that ego of like, I can kill this thing. I can turn this around.
**0:15:37** - (Kelly Many): In the environment that we're living in, there's no lions and tigers and bears, but government is a lion. Regulations are bear.
**0:15:44** - (B): That's being kind.
**0:15:46** - (Kelly Many): I am trying to and sometimes our staff, love them to bits. Can be lions and tigers and bears. So what happens is our brain doesn't realise that this isn't really a lion or tiger or bear, but we will emotionally react as if we're about to either fight this thing or the classic thing, run away and go under the doonas. That's when emotion is not working for us, it's working against us. And so we do need to know strategies of dialing down that emotional play.
**0:16:17** - (Kelly Many): And that's what I think. Right at the beginning, I said, wake up in the morning, think about your intention. And if that intention is coming from a good place, your emotional center starts to be regulated. You start to calm down and actually see things for what it really is rather than have an emotional reaction to something.
**0:16:35** - (B): Yeah. One of my tips is five minutes meditation in the morning and five minutes meditation at night. In the morning, it's that mental preparedness. And you can know Dr. Joe Dispenser's a great one. You've got car maps, you've got everything but five minutes in the morning and five minutes at night. In the morning, it's preparing for the day. At night, it's doing a close off, and I find I sleep a lot better. And the rest of it now, emotions and egos, it was a loaded question for this reason.
**0:17:00** - (B): I've seen a lot of cafe and restaurant owners, and one of the things I harp on about, and we talk about it in 17 Rules of Game Changer thinking with Alan Bonsel is the rule of outside in. The cafe and restaurant owners that are building menus for their own ego and their own emotion versus building a menu on what the consumer wants to buy. And for the listeners, this is what I mean. The number one selling item right now on the cafe's menu is something like a ham and cheese croissant. Now, it's not sexy, it's not fun. You can spin it, you can turn it, you can do whatever. It's a ham and cheese croissant.
**0:17:31** - (B): But it is the number one selling item because it's seen as a meal. It's under $10.
**0:17:37** - (Kelly Many): It's yummy.
**0:17:37** - (B): It's yummy. Whereas the cafe owner that says, I'm not serving a ham or I'm not serving and we had that situation with a client not long ago. I'm Jewish. We don't eat ham and I'm or pork. So I'm not putting that on my menu. But you're not building a menu for you. You're building it for the customer. And that's really something I want to delve into the cafe and is based on what Kelly has said about your ego and your emotion, how does it play into actual into your cafe? It's things like that. Are you designing your menu from the outside in? Are you building your customer service from the outside in? Get rid of that ego and emotion. Get rid of the mindset of ego and emotion, because it is then as we talk about mindset, matters. So, Kelly, let's change speeds a bit, staff shortages, everyone's going through it, right? And what we've identified, we've done a whole body of work, not just the Cafe industry, the whole industry, in any industry, and the whole world has gone through this. The staff shortages, in particular in retention, which is something most people haven't focused on, and attraction. Everyone's been talking, how do I attract staff, how do I attract staff? And one of the things that I've been talking a lot about when I'm doing the speaking circuit or workshops is, what's your strategy around retention?
**0:18:42** - (B): So I want to get a professional's point of view on that. Again, you've worked with many leaders, you're still doing great. Businesses like Audi and all the rest of it. Talk us through the mindset of staff, and in particular, some tips from your perspective on retaining your staff and then attracting staff.
**0:18:58** - (Kelly Many): Yeah. Retention is, and it always has been, a preferred method. You'd rather keep your existing rather than managing a situation where you have to constantly get new people in. The research shows that if you retain your people, you are likely to have a two to three times bottom line productivity retention there. Because if you are constantly burning and churning, it costs, and I don't know the exact stats for Cafe owners, but let's just look at broadly.
**0:19:33** - (Kelly Many): It costs two to three times a person's salary.
**0:19:37** - (B): Jeez.
**0:19:38** - (Kelly Many): When you get rid of people all the time, or people are going, so it's a big situation there. So we do know that retention is a preferred strategy. What the issue is, is people are aware of what's out there, so they will jump that situation. I call it a regrettable loss. We've got to try and manage those regrettable losses where it's an individual that actually is quite critical to the business. And if you talk about ego, we haven't been able to overcome some of the barriers in our own mind as to why we want to keep this person or not.
**0:20:12** - (Kelly Many): You have to think this through, that if that person leaves, it could cost you two to three times the cost of their salary because of all the hidden costs, training costs, recruitment costs, downtime costs. So you're better off keeping the individual if they're quite key to your business than losing them. Total different story about non regrettable loss where they're just not performing, move them on. But those that are key, you need to really look at a strategy around that. But you got to remember, it's not about just throwing money at people.
**0:20:41** - (B): Correct.
**0:20:41** - (Kelly Many): It's about the engagement of that person, about their lifestyle, their own career pathways and that conversations that you're having with that individual. So it's not just necessarily throwing money, because research does show if you throw money at people only last two salary packets.
**0:20:56** - (B): Yeah, good point. Something for listeners to really hone in. It's not just about the dollars, it's lifestyle. I remember working with one of the restaurants here in Brisbane and they used to open six days a week and five was lunch and dinner and they used to have to run two lots of staff. Anyway, long story short, the strategy we worked together was to change it and it was to open four days a week, lunch and dinner. And it meant that you had the same staff, the same shifts. They were happy to work a little bit longer because they had three days off in a row in hospitality, which is unheard of. Absolutely simple strategy.
**0:21:26** - (Kelly Many): And there you go, it's an attraction strategy now. So by doing something as a retention, you've now inadvertently created attraction strategy, which is, hang on, you're getting a name out there, you can get three days a week off. Like that's a great it is.
**0:21:40** - (B): And something for owners to take use. That the whole psychology that Kelly's talking about. And then put into practice. There's another group on the Gold Coast, and I don't mention brands for a reason, but there's a group that's got five cafes and they open at six in the morning and they close at twelve lunchtime and they've got the same team at every location. They've got a small footprint, so rents are smaller. They've only got two to three staff.
**0:21:59** - (B): They incentivize the staff when they give them a percentage of the coffee sales over a certain number of cups and you start to see that they've got a great strategy, great formula, right? Their mindset is in the right place. Bringing it back to the owner of the cafe has got to be in the mindset, the mindset to share and have people. And this is my bottom line to it. And my point is, I've always said you want people good enough to own their own business, but you got to give them a reason not to.
**0:22:24** - (B): And unfortunately, a lot of the mindset of cafe owners and restaurant owners is I'm not giving away any competitive. Correct. They're very competitive, very ego and emotion. So that's what we really wanted to unpack there, because everyone's gone through staff shortages and what are we doing to retain the good people that we've got? And if you've got bad people, move them quickly.
**0:22:40** - (Kelly Many): Right? That story has not changed. That one.
**0:22:43** - (B): Fantastic. So let's talk about innovation, right?
**0:22:45** - (Kelly Many): Yes.
**0:22:46** - (B): I hate the word innovation. Innovation. Innovation. Innovation has to occur for a purpose. So innovation has to be linked to a purpose. You innovate because there's a problem that you need to solve or there's something you need to do better. So let's talk about how can cafe owners adapt that into the mindsets to constantly say, I need to innovate. Evolution is probably a better word than innovate. How can cafe owners evolve their strategies?
**0:23:10** - (B): Especially when consumer mindset is changing?
**0:23:13** - (Kelly Many): Absolutely.
**0:23:14** - (B): Because I want to start tapping into the consumer mindset a bit. So how can cafe owners be on that front? Foot because the consumer's mindset is changing.
**0:23:21** - (Kelly Many): Yeah, for me, I agree. So innovation is one of those words that gets touted about and it's kind of like conjuring up Beanbags and wearing black turtleneck shirts and jeans and sneakers kind of googling or to glamorize innovation. What we're talking about here is, how do I stay relevant? That's the thing that we're looking at. So having that in your mindset, actually asking that question, how am I going to stay relevant?
**0:23:47** - (Kelly Many): How is it that my customers are going to be constantly coming to my cafe? That questioning creates that learning mindset, that open mindset. Because to stay relevant, you can't only think about yourself. You've actually got to open your eyes and see the world around you. So classic thing is asking questions. Yeah.
**0:24:08** - (B): Asking your consumer the question.
**0:24:10** - (Kelly Many): Right? Yeah. That's what my late father used to do really well. And so we had ice cream shops, we'd have hotels, and I used to watch that. And I kind of used to get embarrassed when you're like, 14 years old because he would always ask questions and I go, dad, shut up. That he would constantly be asking questions of the customer in a very engaging way. It wasn't like a police spotlight kind of situation, but he'd always ask how'd you find that? What could we do? He would constantly be asking, and he would be tweaking along. And it was about staying relevant.
**0:24:40** - (B): He's building a consumer led organization.
**0:24:42** - (Kelly Many): Yeah. And it was staying relevant all the time. So that's what I want you to think about as cafe owners. Don't think about the innovation because sometimes you get lost in maybe looking at new products that seem really cool because there's great salespeople that come in. I know. We see it at the shop. Come in. We can do anything. Oh, that'll solve my problem. That is a thing. It is not the actual person that you're trying to attract. So have a think about staying relevant in your mindset, and that will create a cascade of ideas.
**0:25:13** - (B): Yeah. No. Well said. It is about constant evolution. And again, to get in that right mindset of, I need to evolve my business. How do I know when to evolve? What should I evolve? You said it very simply, ask the customer.
**0:25:23** - (Kelly Many): Absolutely.
**0:25:23** - (B): Ask your customer. How much conversation are we having? I'm sick of seeing you walk into a coffee shop and the barristers heads down behind the machine. They're not engaging with people. My son made a great example the other day when we went to McDonald's and he said, we touched. Three different people served us the person over the radio, the person for the money, person gave you the bag, and not one of them said please or thank you.
**0:25:43** - (B): And that's McDonald's losing their emotional engagement, which means it's a scary world because they were a great trainer of obviously, staff people really underestimate that emotional engagement, and they really. Underestimate to be in the mindset of service. So let's touch on that. The mindset of service, right. As I said, the customer is expecting more for less. I don't believe the customer wants free. The customer knows that things cost money. The customer is happy to pay more. They know that everything's gone up, but they do want value.
**0:26:10** - (Kelly Many): Yes.
**0:26:10** - (B): So let's talk about the mindset of the customer, which will hopefully help our cafe and restaurant listeners. What are some tips, tricks? What are some small things, especially that you've got a hospitality background from your parents and obviously in your husband's business that you obviously work in as well. What are some strategies, mindset strategies that people can use to make sure that they are delving into the mindset of the consumer?
**0:26:30** - (Kelly Many): You know what the good news is? Cafe owners are also customers. So you think about your suppliers. What do you like about them? You think about the restaurants that you go to or the dealerships for your cars that you go, your mechanics. I don't know anything. You know what you want.
**0:26:48** - (B): Correct.
**0:26:49** - (Kelly Many): So what's great about that question about staying relevant? Ask your customer. Then you have to say to yourself, do I want that customer?
**0:26:55** - (B): Yes.
**0:26:55** - (Kelly Many): Right.
**0:26:55** - (B): Very true.
**0:26:56** - (Kelly Many): Is that customer something that it's easy to have an interaction with because you want more of those and less of the ones that you're unable to service? Because that's what we got to be speaking out too. It's actually okay to have an understanding of where your customer base is and expanding that you're adding value to that group. And then when you add value to that group, it starts to expand. So to me, going back into that mindset, take your hat off as a Kaifayo Anna. Put your hat on as a customer and ask your questions about what is it that you're looking for?
**0:27:26** - (Kelly Many): Because it's not that far removed. I think sometimes people get a bit lost with it or what does the customer want? Like this mystic guess what? You're a customer.
**0:27:34** - (B): Yeah, well said. And that's true. It's a great way to look at it. Take the owner's hat off and put yourself in the customer.
**0:27:40** - (Kelly Many): Can we share? We're great family, friends, and we'll go to places, could be movies even. What you just said to you about your son. How many times have you gone into a place and you've thought of it like a customer, not as a business owner. You've thought of it as a customer. That's not right. That's not cafe owners have this skill set. You know how to run a business, so apply it in other situations and then put it back onto you and go. If I were to analyze my business, if I were to walk in as a customer, don't you love those shows? The undercover boss.
**0:28:12** - (B): Yes, love it.
**0:28:12** - (Kelly Many): That just do that.
**0:28:13** - (B): Back in the ballad days, they wanted me, they approached me to be on Undercover Boss and I said, won't work because all my 140 staff across Australia know me otherwise. There's a big problem. So there's no undercover here. But it's so true. Look, that's why I train my staff is I say to them, you think like a customer. What's the problem here? What are you seeing right now? The chair's not around the table, tables aren't know you're not smiling, all this sort of stuff. It's a really simple ideology, but it's a powerful ideology. Think like a customer and get your team to think like a customer. Because not only as cafe owners, but we can train our teams to do the same thing. And that's one of the things that you hone in on, is you're training a lot leaders, but you're also working with their teams on how they can deliver service excellence.
**0:28:54** - (B): Last question, Kelly. Tell us. Mindset exercises practices. I talked about the five minute meditation in the morning, the five minute meditation at night. What are some other practices? Even exercises like you've done my emotional intelligence testing. To me, that's important to know where I sit, knowing that emotional intelligence changes. So you've just recently done my next one and my empathy evolved, and I'm happy for you to talk through it. What are some of the exercises and tools out there for cafe owners that don't take a whole heap of time, but they're very powerful in you getting to know yourself better?
**0:29:25** - (Kelly Many): Absolutely. So the first one that you've mentioned is that self assessment. So it'll be great for people to get to know themselves. What are their strengths, what are their development areas? There's big tools that you can use, but there's ones that you can find online that are relatively cheap where you're looking at some personality tooling. So something to understand. What's my thinking style? What's my influencing and engaging style? How do I like to deliver work and what's my stress? Like my resiliency coupled with that? You can do your doctor's appointments and figure out where you're going with your body.
**0:29:57** - (B): Yes. Sharper blood tests, all that sort of.
**0:29:59** - (Kelly Many): All of that stuff. So there's that piece. So that's that I guess it's a diagnostic, see where you're at and where you want to go. We talked a little bit before about some of the mindset strategies around meditation, gratitude, and I call it labeling emotions. So what research has found is if you label your emotion, you're able to calm that down. I'm feeling frustrated, upset, tired. That actual thinking.
**0:30:23** - (Kelly Many): Calms down the body. Actually you're acknowledging it. So there's those mental mindset strategies. The other part is the relationship. I touched on it earlier, but I want to explore it a little bit more. What we have found is people that connect more with others that are in similar industries or have conversations and talk to people. Not in a whingefest, in just sharing and exploring. They have found those individuals don't feel like the weight of the world is onto them. They're sharing that load and they're not retreating into themselves, because what can happen is if you've got the mindset of a negative mindset and then you're retreating, you're only trying to solve it in your own head.
**0:31:02** - (Kelly Many): You're in a very dangerous place, right? You're really thinking it's the world against you.
**0:31:06** - (B): Very lonely.
**0:31:07** - (Kelly Many): Very lonely. We need people to reach out, to communicate, whether it be friends and family or I mean, you've set up a great system here where you're connecting and learning and growing and developing. So you have to get out of the cafe every once in a while and we tell people that because you get stuck. It's not a great thinking, but it's something that can be considered in cafe owners or whatever hospitality industry you're in.
**0:31:35** - (Kelly Many): You can have this mentality of it being an open door prison, right? So even though the door is open, I can walk out anytime. You stay stuck in your cafe, in your restaurant, in whatever business you're in, and that mentality is not helpful. Humans need to be connecting with other humans. You got to get out, have a chat, talk things through, realise that's not that bad, or you get struck by a great idea.
**0:31:59** - (Kelly Many): I can implement that.
**0:32:01** - (B): Yeah, for sure.
**0:32:01** - (Kelly Many): Very important. So I think that relationship based.
**0:32:04** - (B): Yeah. And that's exactly what the coffee communion is about, right. As you know, firsthand it's about building that community to share your problems. And together we learn more, we do more, we talk more, we help you with buying power. It's all of that for that reason. What's that saying? They say a problem shared is a problem halved, and that's it, nobody's immune to it and that's what we try and do. But get involved, whether it's a coffee commune or whether it's you create your own roundtable, get amongst community, talk about things. Because again, we come back to the beginning where we said you either stand still and do nothing, fixed mindset, or you say, hey, get on my bike and pedal, and I'm pedal in the right direction. Right in the right direction. Don't worry, we've all got in the wrong direction sometimes and we fall off our bikes too, but you just get back on and keep going. Right. So it's growth mindset that we're after. So, Kelly, tell us a little bit more about anyone wants to do. Of course, we've used you a lot of times. You've just been doing our emotional capital reports for the leadership team and the rest of it. If people want to engage more with what you are about or engage you for their services and all that stuff, how do they get a hold and know more about Kelly? Many artists?
**0:33:02** - (Kelly Many): Yeah. So easiest way is my website, Leftfieldco.com Au. On there is all the list of services that I provide because it's a number of things that I can help businesses with. And also, you can look me up on LinkedIn. I have found that a lot of people reach me out that way, and I'm very responsive that way. So, Kelly, many artists on LinkedIn, you can just follow me there and then engage with me that way.
**0:33:26** - (B): And, of course, we have Kelly regularly at the coffee commune presenting whether it's a breakfast or a lunch or a workshop, so you can have a look.
**0:33:32** - (Kelly Many): Hopefully soon we'll be launching my book around the leadership difference.
**0:33:36** - (B): Well, I'm looking forward to the book. Kelly's in the middle of finishing a book called the leadership difference, and I've been able to have a look at it, and it looks fantastic. And again, it's functional, it's easy to understand, and it's helpful. One of the things about books is I don't like talk fests and blah blahs, just like in meetings. As you know, everything's got to have a purpose, and everything's got to have an outcome. Kelly, you've been amazing. You've been there and done that. That's why we chose you to be on the show and talk about mindset matters, how to become mentally stronger. I thank you for your time.
**0:34:03** - (Kelly Many): Thank you.
**0:34:03** - (B): And I hope you got some great nuggets out of that. You can see what we're all about at the coffee commune. It's all about accelerating your potential, being better tomorrow than you are today. And today we've been talking about mindset matters. So get those key takeaways, do the work, get on your bike, pedal hard, and you will accelerate your potential. Until next time, you've been listening to Phil DeBella, and I'm the founder and managing director of the coffee commune. That's a wrap for today.
**0:34:27** - (B): Keep listening for more episodes of Bean There and Done That!. The Coffee Commune is here to help accelerate your potential. We want you to be better tomorrow than today. Until next time, you've been listening, Phil Di Bella. I'm the founder and managing director of the coffee commune, a place where the coffee community comes to collaborate.