Hey Passion Nation! Welcome to the first ever episode of Feeding Your Passion! This is episode 00. This is the precursor to all other episodes. Feeding Your Passion is a podcast for the Entrepreneur and the Food Connoisseur. This episode will be about 15 minutes long and it's just you and me today. Starting in our next episode, I’ll be interviewing amazing Restaurant owners week in and week out.

Today, my goal is to share with you my vision & inspiration for the podcast and then wrap up by telling you a little bit about myself.

Before you get rolling on the next episode, I would love for you to visit my website FeedingYourPassion.com where you can sign up for our email list so that we can deliver the podcast to your inbox every week. By going to our website, we can connect and work together to build PASSION NATION….. Now, prepare to be FED! (transition sound effect or music)

Hey everyone, Eric Martin here and I want to thank you for joining me for episode 00 of FeedingYourPassion.com. Every week I will be interviewing the most exciting and inspiring Restaurant Owners of today. Each interview will be captivating in its own right as it will be a virtual VIP dining experience where you join the head-table with our celebrity guest restauranteur in their establishment. I’m excited about producing a new 25-minute episode for you each week. So what this means for you is that Feeding Your Passion will be awaiting you, at the beginning of the week, for your commute to work, your morning jog or any weekly activity that requires an extra dose of inspiration.

We will follow a clear concise format on every show so that you will know exactly what to expect day in and day out. Have I got your attention? If so, then keep listening and I’ll dive into the interview flow before moving on to tell you a little bit about myself, your host, Eric Martin.

Ok… Food Connoisseurs pull up a chair, this part was designed for you. We start with our Front of the House virtual VIP Dining Experience where you will personally get to know the spotlighted Restaurant Owner, you will hear in their own words what inspired them to open their restaurant and what they feel sets them apart with the dining experience they’ve created for you. Next you’ll learn, with mouthwatering detail, their most popular, must try and favorite culinary creations! Whether it’s your next date night or dinner with a client, I want to facilitate a connection between you and these amazing Restaurant Owners.

The next segment is geared toward the entrepreneur but stick around for the entire show and you just might receive a VIP ticket with a special offer directly from the owner of the restaurant. (Free Dessert)

Whether you’re a current or aspiring Restaurant Owner, manager or Chef the Back of the House segment was designed with you in mind. We will now take a deeper dive to learn more from our guest by asking questions like:

1.     What is one thing you feel like you have done really well in the development of your Restaurant(s)

2.     What is one thing you NOW know that you wish you would have known when you started your foodservice journey?

3.     And much more!

All of these questions let us learn from their valuable experience as a Restaurant Owner. Then, as we walk through their challenges, we will have the opportunity to benefit from what they learned and what they did to overcome.

At this point, we’ve reached my favorite part, the Final Crumb (from the table of a winner)! One of my favorite quotes is that “I’d rather eat a crumb from the table of a winner than to eat a full meal from the table of a looser” The final crumb segment is a lightning round segment that probes deep into the mind of the restaurant owner to extract priceless nuggets of knowledge. I know the answers to these questions will contain valuable information that every foodservice professional should know.

Some of the questions include:

1.     What is the one thing you’re the most passionate about today?

2.     What is the best advice you’ve ever received?

3.     And a whole lot more!

I love these questions because we blast through to gain crumbs & morsels of gold that will provide valuable insights for you.

We then wrap up each episode with the “Sweet Course” where our Celebrity guest shares, with you, one final piece of sweet advice!

As Entrepreneurs and Restauranteurs, often times, we’re so tied up in running our companies that good ideas and strategies lie dormant. You may find yourself thinking about that good idea but are waiting for the inspiration and additional insights to “Make A Decision” and take powerful action. Our Restaurant Owner’s insights and inspiration might just help you take that leap to bring to life and fully execute that great idea or strategy. When you Make A Decision and take powerful action, I call that going MAD! It’s an acronym for “Make A Decision” Because nothing is going to change until you Make A Decision. I want to support you as you go MAD and follow your Passion!

Now that I’ve outlined the show format, I want to share with you why I created FeedngYourPassion.com.

For 2 ½ years, I’ve been an avid listener of podcasts. Like most people I found myself in a routine where I get up, go to work and then do it all over again the next day. I was working hard but felt that I needed additional mentorship to be more effective. Don’t get me wrong, music and the news are fine, but I found myself hungry for more and podcasts really hit the bulls-eye for me. Podcasts offer a combination that’s really hard to beat. You can gain specialized knowledge; they’re targeted to any passion & they are free. I started listening to a privately produced podcast that was geared toward entrepreneurs and it was a perfect fit. The inspiration and education I got from podcasts was a game changer when it came to my personal growth.

I became captivated with the impact that these podcast hosts were making through the specialized knowledge and inspiration that they were delivering episode after episode. As I continued to listen and experience the personal impact for myself, I began to see these podcasters as real people. They had a passionate desire to make an impact, so they “Made a Decision”, dug in, learned the technology and launched their podcast. I realized that if they could start from zero and do that then I could too.

I have been in the foodservice industry as part of the supply chain for the past 27 years and I have a passionate desire to make a larger impact in the industry that I grew up in. As I went from employee to business owner there were many times in my career that I really wanted to learn from the leaders that had traveled the path before me, but too often, I didn’t have access to those people or to that knowledge. During my journey, my wife Julie, has undoubtedly been my secret weapon. She has supported me through it all and as part of the process she blossomed into a passionate food connoisseur in her own right. So, it is was from this desire and circumstance that FeedingYourPassion.com was born. The Podcast for the Entrepreneur and the Food Connoisseur!

I Made A Decision to create a platform that would allow people from around the globe to have access to front of the house and back of the house stories, lessons and concepts. My goal is to create a headquarters where the best and most exciting ideas in foodservice are shared, believing that it will inspire you to unleash your unique God given passions and gifts.

Ok... So now that you know about FeedingYourPassion.com and the reason I created it, I’ll wrap up with my personal background.

I’m Eric Martin and I was born in rural central Indiana in the middle of barns, basketball goals and corn fields. I grew up on a gravel road 5 miles outside of town. At 14, my family moved to San Antonio Texas where I had the opportunity to play big time High School Football. Even after an injury during my Senior season, I was fortunate to earn a full football scholarship to Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville, TN. This was truly a blessing since I had to pay for college myself.

My dad pushed me to study engineering in college because he said that as an engineer you can always get a job. He was an engineer his entire career so with his urging, I studied industrial engineering, which was a great education, but it wasn’t my passion. I had a passion for business and entrepreneurship. With 4 years in and 1 year to go toward getting my degree I decided to take a year off college and evaluate what I was passionate about and the direction I wanted my career to go. I had to get a job during that time, and I was hired in the supply chain of the foodservice industry. I enjoyed the business, worked hard and I started making good money. I was calling on restaurants all over middle TN showing them food products and menu concepts that could fit their operation. Within a year, I was making what starting engineers were being hired at, so my career had begun.

As an employee I was always willing to work hard, and I wanted to add value to the company. I knew that the more value I delivered, the more money I could earn personally. After being overlooked for a sales management position on two separate occasions, I finally got my opportunity to lead and impact the company in a positive way. My leadership was finally validated when after 13 years of navigating many twists and turns I was given the opportunity to become the majority owner of the company I had helped build. I have amazing partners; we have an amazing company and I love the positive impact that I’m able to have with our team day in and day out. Over the past 14 years, we have merged 9 companies and we now have 100 or so supply chain specialists on our team throughout the Southeast.

I’ve always had a passion for making a larger impact so since I believe in blooming where you’ve been planted, I decided to launch a podcast that would be a platform for the foodservice industry. I have met so many amazing Restaurant owners over the years that deserve to be recognized for their wisdom and accomplishments. They have all built their businesses on a solid foundation of FOOD, PASSION & SERVICE and because of how they are wired, I know they will be energized to share their passion and knowledge of success with the next generation.

I Made a Decision that I was going to do this, so I dug in and started learning the technology and process for creating and launching a podcast. The more I studied it the more passionate I became. I shared the idea with my wife and I quickly found that she was the brains behind this project. I had been struggling to come up with the name and a tag line for months. Once she understood what I was trying to accomplish, she came up with the name “Feeding Your Passion” and the tagline “For the Entrepreneur and the Food Connoisseur” in about 30 minutes. I quickly checked on the domain and the .com was available! This was all a sign that I had to follow through.

I had been laying the foundation for a year and decided to launch in early 2020 then Coronavirus hit! Since my company creates 100% of our revenue from the foodservice industry, we went from our best year ever to scrambling and pivoting to salvage our company and keep as much of our team in place as possible as we worked to figure out what was really going on. As I wrap up my notes for episode 00, we just announced to our team that we secured the PPP Loan and that it would allow us to re-instate their salaries to pre-Covid levels.

I’m putting my foot on the gas to get this podcast launched because I’ve learned over the years, that during times of crisis and great challenge it is vital to have more communication and collaboration so that together we can create a rising tide that raises all ships.

As I launch this podcast in the middle of Covid-19, I have no idea which models to believe or what the re-opening of the restaurant industry will look like, but I do know one thing for certain… That is the fact that no model can account for the vision, creativeness and passion of the “Restaurant Owner”.

I have no clue where this platform will take us, but I do know that I’m passionate to hear and share the stories of many Rockstar Restaurant Owners as well as the stories of their delicious menu offerings and invaluable insights. I’m “keyed up” to hear the stories from those of you that catch your inspiration and Make A Decision that changes the trajectory of your life because you pivot and follow your passion.

I want to thank you again for joining me here at FeedingYourPassion.com. Whether you’re an avid Food Connoisseur, current or aspiring Restaurant owner or a foodservice supply chain professional, it is truly my hope… that one, if not all, the episodes I produce help ignite your fire or help feed your already burning passion.

If you find value in this podcast then please go to iTunes, Subscribe and give us a rating and hopefully a 5-star review. If you are generous enough to do that then I’m going to give you a personalized thank you on one of our upcoming shows.

I believe you are absolutely going to love the Feeding Your Passion episodes as we are inspired by these amazing restaurant owners.

So, come on over to FeedingYourPassion.com, join our email list and be on the lookout for the next episode. Now… Go be Great! PASSION NATION!