Michigan's Coffee with Mike McFall of Biggby Coffee
Episode 11921st July 2023 • Total Michigan • Cliff Duvernois
00:00:00 00:30:31

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Mike starts his journey as a broke college student looking for a job. Starting at a barista and growing from there, the opportunity to be a part of something truly special was too much to resist. Now Biggby Coffee stretches across 13 states with well over 200 locations. This barista turned co-CEO and Co-Founder shares his story along with his newest book "Grow" with us.

Links:

Mike McFall's website: https://michaeljmcfall.com

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Transcripts

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

It's not about building a widget and making a,

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

making an entrepreneur rich to okay, fine.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

That, but that's not to me anything to necessarily aspire to.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

What I aspire to and what I hope to encourage others to aspire to is build

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

powerful organizations that are doing really incredible things in the world.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And then figure out as a group how to improve the human condition.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

To me that's next level entrepreneurship.

Cliff Duvernois:

Hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode of

Cliff Duvernois:

Total Michigan where we interview ordinary Michiganders who are doing

Cliff Duvernois:

some pretty extraordinary things.

Cliff Duvernois:

And today's guest would definitely qualify as someone who is doing just that.

Cliff Duvernois:

Literally coming out of nowhere, his business has just been

Cliff Duvernois:

going absolutely gangbusters, expanding now across to 12 states.

Cliff Duvernois:

And if that wasn't enough, he actually took the time to put pen to paper

Cliff Duvernois:

and write, not one, but two books.

Cliff Duvernois:

First book is called Grind, the No BS Approach to Take Your

Cliff Duvernois:

Business From Concept to Cashflow.

Cliff Duvernois:

Next, he wrote the book called Grow, which was recently out.

Cliff Duvernois:

and that's Take Your Business from Chaos to Calm.

Cliff Duvernois:

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the show, the co-founder

Cliff Duvernois:

and Co-CEO of Biggby Coffee.

Cliff Duvernois:

That would be Michael McFall.

Cliff Duvernois:

Mike, how are you?

Cliff Duvernois:

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee: I'm great, Cliff.

Cliff Duvernois:

Thanks for having me.

Cliff Duvernois:

This is great.

Cliff Duvernois:

Awesome, and I'm completely looking forward to this.

Cliff Duvernois:

So why don't you tell our audience where are you from?

Cliff Duvernois:

Where did you grow up?

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

I, grew up in Highland, Michigan, which

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

is a suburb of Milford, Michigan, which is a suburb of, Metro Detroit.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

But I, graduated from Milford High School, and I, I spent my, formative years there.

Cliff Duvernois:

Biggby was actually started in Lansing.

Cliff Duvernois:

And Yeah.

Cliff Duvernois:

How did you wind up going from Detroit to Lansing?

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

I went to my, my undergrad degree was in Kalamazoo.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And I spent a few years outta Michigan right when I graduated.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And then I came back and, took a job in Metro Detroit, in, in corporate America.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And lasted about nine months before I was summarily fired.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

But I, I, but I took a job.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

my mom was a professor at Michigan State and one of her colleagues

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

was a close family friend.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And I was preparing to go back to graduate school and he invited me to come work

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

on a really quite interesting, research project that he was in the middle of.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And so I went to East Lansing to be a research assistant on that project.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And it was only 20 hours a week.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

So I went around and I applied at all the different coffee shops,

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

in East Lansing at the time.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

hoping to, compliment some of my income there.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And, and luckily, fortunately, I walked into our original store.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And was hired to become a barista there.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And so I would work from 6:00 AM till 2:00 PM at the coffee shop.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And then I would work from 2:00 PM until, 3:00 PM till

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

five or 6:00 PM in the evening.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

So that was Monday through Friday.

Cliff Duvernois:

Now, I know you said that you were looking

Cliff Duvernois:

for something to supplement your income as a college student,

Cliff Duvernois:

Why was it that you decided to pursue maybe being a barista at a coffee shop?

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

For me it seemed cool, like a social, more

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

of a social engagement than work.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

Ah.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And, that proved out.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

I lo I loved working in the coffee shop.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And I talk about here I am 25 years later and, I still remember those days fondly.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And I think I'm still in this business, this industry, because

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

I love that time so much.

Cliff Duvernois:

So you've gotten hired as a barista at Biggby.

Cliff Duvernois:

So obviously we know the end of the story, right?

Cliff Duvernois:

You're Co-CEO of the company.

Cliff Duvernois:

So I'm totally curious.

Cliff Duvernois:

I know that there's, you worked your way up or whatever it is.

Cliff Duvernois:

Walk us through that story.

Cliff Duvernois:

How did you go from part-time barista to all of a sudden now you're Co-CEO.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

I, so how that went down was my partner, Bob Fish, and,

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

Mary Rosell, they owned the first store.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And they were working on a second store and they approached me about

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

becoming a manager for them in that business, in that second store.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And, I wasn't particularly interested.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

I had my path charted.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

and then, but we sat down anyway.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And Bob and I sat down almost like formal interview style.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

neither one of us.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

That doesn't work well for either one of us.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And so we ended up popping up and going for a long walk, like a four

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

hour walk around East Lansing.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And this was spring of 1997.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

At the end of that walk, we shook hands and agreed to found

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

or start a company together.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

As equal partners, Bob, Mary, and I, that we would use that would be the entity

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

that we would use to grow the brand.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

we started this thing on a handshake, and that's the company.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

so they own the first two stores.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

Then the company that we formed is the company, the platform we

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

used to really grow the business.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And so that's how it all started.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And so we, and that's the company that we, franchise within.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

All of our contracts with all of our franchise owners

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

are with that organization.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

and, and so that was how I went from barista to, to co-founder and now Co-CEO.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

I wasn't the co, I wasn't the co-CEO then.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

I think I, my first title was like Director of Operations or something.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

Certainly I moved to, and but it was, I think in 2016 maybe, we, Bob and

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

I agreed and decided that we should become co-CEOs of the business cuz we

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

were, practically speaking, we were co-managing the business together.

Cliff Duvernois:

So I wanna take a step back cuz this was something

Cliff Duvernois:

that you mentioned before.

Cliff Duvernois:

What did you get your degree in?

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

Economics.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

Economics.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

Okay.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

Yeah, that's, we didn't have a, there wasn't really a business department,

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

at Kalamazoo College at the time.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

but, So we got an economics, had some kind of a business, sub, sub, whatever

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

you call it, sub What do you call that?

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

Degree?

Cliff Duvernois:

Sub degree.

Cliff Duvernois:

There you go.

Cliff Duvernois:

Sorry.

Cliff Duvernois:

Yeah, like a minor or specialization or something?

Cliff Duvernois:

Yeah, minor.

Cliff Duvernois:

Thank you.

Cliff Duvernois:

yeah.

Cliff Duvernois:

Cuz I, I asked the question because you were talking before

Cliff Duvernois:

about how, like initially you, you weren't interested in this.

Cliff Duvernois:

And so I wanted to go back and find out what your degree was.

Cliff Duvernois:

Cuz if you're going into economics, that's quite a little bit

Cliff Duvernois:

different of a stretch going from economics to being an entrepreneur,

Cliff Duvernois:

starting this brand new company.

Cliff Duvernois:

But something appealed to you.

Cliff Duvernois:

So during that four hour mysterious walk that you had, with Bob, something

Cliff Duvernois:

appealed to you to say, you know what, I'm, I wanna start this.

Cliff Duvernois:

What was that?

Cliff Duvernois:

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee: it was twofold.

Cliff Duvernois:

the easy and simple answer is it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what

Cliff Duvernois:

was going on in coffee at that moment.

Cliff Duvernois:

And so we, and then the other thing that, that, I also mentioned

Cliff Duvernois:

that I, I enjoyed working there.

Cliff Duvernois:

I really enjoyed being in the coffee shop.

Cliff Duvernois:

Yeah.

Cliff Duvernois:

The social aspect of it, really.

Cliff Duvernois:

Sure.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

Yeah.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

The and I was really into hospitality.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And I loved making people feel good and so on.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

but then the other major factor was, is that the Bob and Mary, were

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

doing something very different in coffee at the time than anybody else.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

They had a very deep restaurant background.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And so they brought that experience to the coffee industry and we built out coffee

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

bars like they were high volume kitchens, not cute, quaint little coffee shops.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

Ah, so the experience that, that they brought, what they had built

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

the system was and is truly amazing.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And so that is that I also sense the real opportunity because of that.

Cliff Duvernois:

So then the question I gotta go back to, cuz you talk

Cliff Duvernois:

about the real opportunity, right?

Cliff Duvernois:

Which is, I'm gonna assume it's the power of franchising.

Cliff Duvernois:

Why go the franchise model?

Cliff Duvernois:

Why not just sit there and say, oh, let's open up a bunch of

Cliff Duvernois:

shops and we'll leave it at that.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

The franchise business model is a unique business model

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

and a, and an incredibly powerful one.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And we didn't know much about it at the time.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

We had people calling us when we had two stores.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

We had people calling us fairly regularly wanting to open a franchise

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

or asking if we franchised nice.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And so nice as a nascent little company, it didn't take too many

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

of those phone calls for us to think to ourselves, maybe we should

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

look into this franchising thing.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And then what happened for us was that we were very fortunate to be in Lansing

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

and have a woman by the name of Mary Ellen Sheets from two men in a truck

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

who was, willing to, mentor us and spend time with us talking about franchising.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And the other piece of that was that it really suited our mentality.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

and, I, if I hadn't gone into this business, I'm 95% sure I would've

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

ended up in academia teaching.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And so as a franchisor, in so many ways, you are teaching, you're

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

coaching, you're mentoring, the franchise owners and my business

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

partner is very much the same way.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

So the business model really suited us, our personalities and

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

how we approach the business.

Cliff Duvernois:

And one of the things that I would like to explore

Cliff Duvernois:

with you is obviously if people are wanting, are calling you up on the

Cliff Duvernois:

phone and saying, Hey, I love this.

Cliff Duvernois:

I wanna be a part of it.

Cliff Duvernois:

Do you franchise?

Cliff Duvernois:

Do you do something else?

Cliff Duvernois:

Obviously at the core of this, you have a really good product.

Cliff Duvernois:

Your coffee is really good.

Cliff Duvernois:

And I really enjoy it.

Cliff Duvernois:

And the question I got for you is that there's so many coffee

Cliff Duvernois:

varietals that are out there.

Cliff Duvernois:

You go around the globe and there's so many different types

Cliff Duvernois:

of coffee that are out there.

Cliff Duvernois:

How do you go about picking out the coffee varietal that is gonna be Biggby

Cliff Duvernois:

signature coffee, the ones that you use in your espressos and everything else.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

Yeah.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

that's more my bus, my, partner Bob's side of the business.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And he's extremely good at it.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

I put Bob probably top five, maybe top 10, people in, knowledgeable people

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

in terms of coffee in the country.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And I've been very fortunate cause I haven't had to build that myself,

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

that knowledge base because of him.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

But I'll tell you that the, the actual bean that you choose.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

it is a factor, in the end product.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

But there's about 15 factors that go into that cup of coffee.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

I say 15 arbitrarily, but there's a ton of factors that go into that cup of coffee

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

in that cup tasting the way it does.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And so much of that is what I already referenced in terms of Bob's and

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

Mary's experiences, restaurateurs.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And you have to buy the right bean.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

It has to be, it has to be imported in the right way, in a way that it's

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

not, has, doesn't affected by the, the importing or the, shipping process.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

But then also, you have to roast that bean, to, In an appropriate way.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And so we had to ask Paramount Coffee, who's been our roaster now for 25 years.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

We had to ask them to roast their, our coffee in a different way than

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

how they were roasting their coffees.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

Then it has to be, then it has to be, stored, properly.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

It's brought into the store in a certain way.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

We, for forever, we roasted on Thursdays.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

It's changed a little bit now.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

But we've roast, we roasted on Thursdays and the coffee was gonna, that coffee

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

that was roasted was gonna be in the store at the very longest by the next Friday.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And we always had a one week, process from roaster to store.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

But then you get into taking that bean and actually turning it into a cup of coffee.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And I, There's so much in that process as well.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

Sure.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

so it's really, I would, I give the, a hundred percent of the credit to the way

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

our coffee tastes to one my partner's knowledge and picking the beans and then

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

roasting, that bean properly, to his experience in the restaurant business

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

and everything that we, that he brought to the table in terms of consistency,

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

process, procedure, all of that.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

it's what made us successful.

Cliff Duvernois:

Why don't you share with us maybe one or two of the biggest

Cliff Duvernois:

challenges, the growing pains that you had, just taking this from a single one or

Cliff Duvernois:

two person, Biggby operation to now all of a sudden you're managing like the growth

Cliff Duvernois:

of dozens of these every single year.

Cliff Duvernois:

What were some of those big pain points?

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

I, that's what I, that's what I cover

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

in my book, I, but I think to try to pull out a couple of nuggets.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

I think the biggest challenge for any entrepreneur is understanding

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

how they impact the team and then therefore impact the business.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And so growing as a leader is absolutely critical.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

you can't be the same.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

You can't approach the business in the same way that you did in the first,

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

three to five years when you were in startup, 10 or 15 years later.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

you have to have evolved.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

You have to have grown, as a leader.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

So that personal transition for Bob and I, without a doubt was, is the most difficult

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

thing that, that we've gone through, to get the company to where it is today.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

I think there's been, moments in time that have been awkward and difficult.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

But I've always approached the business, and I write about

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

this in my first book Grind.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

I've always approached the business from the perspective of a business

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

is like a really cool, hyper dynamic, three-dimensional game of monopoly.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

and and so even the challenges that we face, even the things that

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

come at us that are hard, and there are, there have been many of those.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

that's all part of it.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And you have to expect that.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And it's, and it's in many ways exciting and invigorating

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

to take on those challenges.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And I think that, looking back on it, there, there aren't these,

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

I've got the stories, right?

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

We got put in default by our bank.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

it was brutal, right?

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And right.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

and so like stuff like that, like we all have those stories.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

Every entrepreneur has these stories, I think that we've been really good at

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

just, you take that stuff on head on and you solve the problems as best you

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

can and you just keep moving forward.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And if there's one thing that my partner and I have been really good

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

at, it's we're, we're now 27 years into the development of this business.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And we feel like we're just getting started.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

and it's always been that way.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

we had 10 stores, if we had 20 stores and a hundred stores and 200 stores.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

It's we always feel like right now is the moment where we're

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

really gonna get traction.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

It's really gonna be amazing.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And we're ju and we're just getting started with it, and I think that

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

mentality keeps us fresh and keeps us engaged and interested and so on.

Cliff Duvernois:

You bet.

Cliff Duvernois:

For our audience, we're gonna take a quick break to thank our sponsors.

Cliff Duvernois:

When we come back, we're gonna talk some more about, Biggby

Cliff Duvernois:

Coffee with Michael, and especially talk about his new book, Grow.

Cliff Duvernois:

We'll see you after the break.

Cliff Duvernois:

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Cliff Duvernois:

Hello everyone and welcome back to Total Michigan.

Cliff Duvernois:

I'm your host, Cliff DuVernois.

Cliff Duvernois:

Today we're talking with Michael McFall, the Co-CEO co-founder of

Cliff Duvernois:

everybody's favorite cup of coffee, and that would be Biggby Coffee.

Cliff Duvernois:

Michael, before the break, we were talking a little bit about, some of the

Cliff Duvernois:

growing pains that you had to go through.

Cliff Duvernois:

And I love the term that you used evolved.

Cliff Duvernois:

And the reason why I say that is because I know that there's a lot of

Cliff Duvernois:

companies out there where like the c the CEO who starts the company,

Cliff Duvernois:

isn't the one who grows the company.

Cliff Duvernois:

But somehow or another, you and Bob have defied those odds, like you said, evolved

Cliff Duvernois:

to now to the point where you not only started it, but you've now evolved it.

Cliff Duvernois:

So what I would like to do is I would like to, explore a little bit more about the

Cliff Duvernois:

managing of the growth of Biggby Coffee.

Cliff Duvernois:

Because we're in Michigan, but all of a sudden now we're outside of Michigan.

Cliff Duvernois:

You're in, we're in 12 states now, right?

Cliff Duvernois:

Biggby coffee's in 12 states.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

yeah.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

I think it's, I think it's 13 now.

Cliff Duvernois:

13.

Cliff Duvernois:

Oh, see, I can't even keep up with you guys.

Cliff Duvernois:

You guys are just on fire.

Cliff Duvernois:

So talk to us about, about, about managing that growth while trying to

Cliff Duvernois:

keep the integrity of the brand intact.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

It's been a, it's been a learning curve for sure.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And we, I don't want to go too much into the weeds here, but, we're a franchise

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

company and Bob and I started having real anxiety over the stores that

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

were geographically removed from us.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And maybe we weren't servicing stores, the way we should and so on.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And I'll tell you, the sense of obligation and responsibility.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

For the two of us when somebody signs on to become a franchise

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

owner, it's a big deal.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

It's, a lot of people are putting a real serious percentage of

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

their net worth into these stores.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

and we started having some anxiety.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And what we did is we followed the same, we built the same mechanism.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

We had a, I should, another part of the story is that we had a pretty

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

deep relationship with Fred DeLuca from the Subway Sandwich shop chain.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

Yes.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

and so he, he.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

Coached us, in, in many aspects of the business.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And one of the things that we decided to do is we decided to adopt the same

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

structure he has, which is they have what are called Development Agents,

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

and they have development agents that own are granted geographic areas.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And those are experienced franchise owners of the business.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

and they take over a geography.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And they service that geography the same way we would.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And so they are our defacto representative in the marketplace, right?

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And so they're the ones that build the relationships with the franchise

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

owners in that geography, support that owner in every aspect of the business.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And now in a geography, and we try to keep those.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

Geographies to somewhere around a million people is Guy is how many

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

people that have, that, we call them area representatives that an AR an

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

area representative is responsible for.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And so now a franchise owner in a remote marketplace like let's say

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

Indianapolis, that franchise owner now has somebody local who's experienced,

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

who owns stores, who's developed stores.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And so that's how we have been able to, over the last, probably five, six

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

years, have grown the organization in a way so that the f the franchise

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

owner, who may be remote geographically has the support that they need.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And then we are responsible for taking care of that AR and ultimately

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

then therefore, the franchise owner.

Cliff Duvernois:

And I think that's absolutely brilliant cuz I, the

Cliff Duvernois:

other coffee chain that shall remain nameless, it seemed like their entire

Cliff Duvernois:

expansion business model was, if our customers have to wait five minutes,

Cliff Duvernois:

we need to open up another store.

Cliff Duvernois:

And then of course that came back to bite 'em in the butt cuz they wound

Cliff Duvernois:

up closing a lot of stores because they're, their business is hurting.

Cliff Duvernois:

And so I think that this concept of having these, I think you call them area reps.

Cliff Duvernois:

Yeah, they ours.

Cliff Duvernois:

Yeah.

Cliff Duvernois:

These area reps in the area like that to let these, franchisees know, Hey, you're

Cliff Duvernois:

not on your own, we're not some nameless corporation just sending you coffee.

Cliff Duvernois:

We're here to support you across, multiple angles.

Cliff Duvernois:

I think, is that something that you, is that something that you were able to get

Cliff Duvernois:

from, the gentleman from the subway model?

Cliff Duvernois:

I'm sorry, his name escapes me.

Cliff Duvernois:

I.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

Yeah.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

Yeah.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

so he, okay.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

He dev he developed that, many years ago, in Subway.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

and then we adopted it.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And, and so it was, it's based on the same concept.

Cliff Duvernois:

Great.

Cliff Duvernois:

What I would like to do is I do wanna spend some time, talking

Cliff Duvernois:

about your new book Grow.

Cliff Duvernois:

And so when I was going through your book, it's unlike any other business

Cliff Duvernois:

book that I've ever been exposed to.

Cliff Duvernois:

if anybody in your audience wanted to check it out, I would almost say

Cliff Duvernois:

this is Business 2 0 2, it's not 1 0 1

Cliff Duvernois:

. And you spend a lot of time in

Cliff Duvernois:

and you referenced this before when you were talking about, evolving.

Cliff Duvernois:

And this is like a lot of the contents of your book when you're going

Cliff Duvernois:

through is how to manage people.

Cliff Duvernois:

And if you're lacking certain skills, then maybe you need to

Cliff Duvernois:

hire somebody with these skills.

Cliff Duvernois:

So why, first off my question is why did you feel that the

Cliff Duvernois:

marketplace needed this book?

Cliff Duvernois:

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee: I, I think that, the more.

Cliff Duvernois:

The more that we write and the more, that people have available to them

Cliff Duvernois:

when they're starting a business from many different perspectives.

Cliff Duvernois:

Mine's just one perspective, right?

Cliff Duvernois:

And, but the more that's out there, the more that it's helpful, to people.

Cliff Duvernois:

But I think the thing that I try to bring, which I believe is fresh,

Cliff Duvernois:

is this concept of due diligence.

Cliff Duvernois:

Everybody listening to this understands what due diligence, and it's a term

Cliff Duvernois:

that's used constantly in business.

Cliff Duvernois:

We do due diligence on just about anything and everything we can think of in advance

Cliff Duvernois:

of starting a company or a business.

Cliff Duvernois:

But we leave out the most important form of due diligence.

Cliff Duvernois:

And that is due diligence on ourselves.

Cliff Duvernois:

Ooh.

Cliff Duvernois:

and so I start out, both of my books.

Cliff Duvernois:

The first chapter is about due diligence.

Cliff Duvernois:

Due diligence on you.

Cliff Duvernois:

And so the key there is to understand how you are, and I mentioned this earlier,

Cliff Duvernois:

how you are going to impact that business.

Cliff Duvernois:

So what are your strengths?

Cliff Duvernois:

What are your weaknesses?

Cliff Duvernois:

How do you supplement your weaknesses and compliment your strengths?

Cliff Duvernois:

and that to me is something that we all need to understand is that we

Cliff Duvernois:

are the most important ingredient in the success of our business.

Cliff Duvernois:

Now when you say we, you're talking specifically about who?

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

The entrepreneur, the founder, the, yeah.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

so What we have to be doing is constantly evaluating and becoming more and more

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

aware, self-aware of our behaviors, of our nuances, and understanding

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

those so that we can, so that we can, counterbalance everything that

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

we bring to the table in a way that is the healthiest for the business.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And so that to me is one of the, one of the fresh takes that I put into this.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

I've never heard that before in the world.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

Talking about due diligence on ourselves as leaders and entrepreneurs.

Cliff Duvernois:

Yeah, I think the closest that I've ever heard is,

Cliff Duvernois:

being an entrepreneur is the ultimate self-help journey because like you

Cliff Duvernois:

said before, you can't be stagnant.

Cliff Duvernois:

You always have to be, evolving to take on the changes of not only that's happening

Cliff Duvernois:

inside of your business, but you know the economy that's going around you.

Cliff Duvernois:

And how the local economy, different than the national economy and how

Cliff Duvernois:

you're gonna be expanding and all of this other stuff and all, regulations

Cliff Duvernois:

that are, could, possibly change that could impact how you're building your

Cliff Duvernois:

stores and all of that other stuff.

Cliff Duvernois:

With your book Grind, when you write the book, what would be like the

Cliff Duvernois:

one thing that you would hope that people would walk away from it with?

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

I, I get asked, often when I speak, How have

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

you been able to get the business to the point where it is today to, to

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

the level of success you have today?

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

and, I always reply with one word and Grind is a book about business

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

startup, and that's the first book.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

and I reply with my one word is focus.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And so I think that, if I have to attribute where we, Bob and I have been

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

able to get the company today, it really is that we woke up every single day for,

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

20 plus years trying to sell one more cup of coffee tomorrow than we did today.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

Yes.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

and that's all we ever did.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

That's all we've done.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

Now, I'm, I, we're, we've moved on from that to some degree, a

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

meaning, I'm writing books and he's traveling the world sourcing coffee.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And so we're not running the minute to minute.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

But we did for 20 plus years.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And so we didn't do anything else.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

We didn't, and that's the bane of most entrepreneurs.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And I write about it extensively in Grind, which is, I.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

If your, you have to figure out what your primary product

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

is, which isn't exactly easy.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And it took us a little while to get there to understand that our

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

primary product was, flavored lattes.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

We weren't selling cappuccinos and macchiatos and cuanas and all these

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

traditional Italian coffee drinks.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

We were selling what we reference nowadays, it's a party in a cup, right?

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

it is.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

it's got whipped cream and caramel and, sprinkles and whatever it might be.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

But you have to figure out what your core product is, and then you have to become

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

world class at delivering that product.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And then focus on that process.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

core product delivery, and you iterate on both of those over time.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

It's not like your core product today is gonna be exactly

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

the same 10 years from now.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And so that to me is how we were able to make the company successful.

Cliff Duvernois:

So I just probably learned more in the last five minutes

Cliff Duvernois:

than I have in the last three years.

Cliff Duvernois:

So where should I mail the check?

Cliff Duvernois:

That was brilliant.

Cliff Duvernois:

you're too kind.

Cliff Duvernois:

I love that.

Cliff Duvernois:

No, I, like I said, I don't get to hear the stuff very often, thank you for that.

Cliff Duvernois:

Sure.

Cliff Duvernois:

and, I do wanna explore this too, and you opened up the door for it

Cliff Duvernois:

because, you've got this knowledge.

Cliff Duvernois:

You've obviously, you've had the time to sit and think about it.

Cliff Duvernois:

You've written a book about it.

Cliff Duvernois:

But also in, on top of everything else that you're doing.

Cliff Duvernois:

You also teach at the Entrepreneur Center at, University of Michigan, correct?

Cliff Duvernois:

Yeah.

Cliff Duvernois:

Here in Ann Arbor.

Cliff Duvernois:

Yeah.

Cliff Duvernois:

Yeah.

Cliff Duvernois:

So talk to us.

Cliff Duvernois:

Talk to us about that.

Cliff Duvernois:

What's it like being a teacher?

Cliff Duvernois:

I.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

Well, if you recall, I, I said if I hadn't done this,

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

there's, I think there's probably a 95% chance that I would've gone into academia.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

Yes, you did say that.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And so I moved to Ann Arbor 10 years ago.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And I, I always had this notion that someday I would approach the

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

university and try to, try to teach.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

Because I've, I, I.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

I love the challenge of teaching in a class.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

It's it, and so when I came here, that was always in the back of my mind.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

I wrote Grind.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And then there's a gentleman here, who's been teaching a class, at the Center

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

for Entrepreneurship for I think, Gosh, it's eight or nine years, maybe longer.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And so what happened is his co-teacher became a regent, here

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

at, the university, Paul Brown.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And so he couldn't be an employee of the university anymore.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And so Brian approached me, Brian Hayden, approached me about co-teaching.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

He had read Grind.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

He liked it.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And he approached me and he said, Hey, I'd really like to

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

have your voice in my classroom.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And I went from not really having any kind of a plan.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And then the next thing you know, I'm in a classroom teaching and

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

co-teaching the class with Brian.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

So that's how that, all that came to be.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

But I'll tell you, you'd asked about how we got this thing to

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

where it is and so on, but I am an absolute advocate, passionate

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

advocate for the visioning process.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And we've, we've written a book at Biggby.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

I co-authored a book, called The Moonshot Guide Book.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And it's all about visioning.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And I had always visioned being a teacher at the university level.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And I wanted to do that in my life.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And so here it is, I'm doing it and I love it.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And it's one of the more invigorating things I have in my life.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

it's just three hours a week on Thursdays.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And, I just, I.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

It is so invigorating to be with students.

Cliff Duvernois:

Oh, I bet you it is.

Cliff Duvernois:

One of the questions that I got for you is that, you're a wealth of knowledge.

Cliff Duvernois:

and that's that right there for you to take the time to actually share that

Cliff Duvernois:

with other people highly commendable.

Cliff Duvernois:

The question I have for you is, obviously you've got a lot of experience

Cliff Duvernois:

in the coffee world and you've got experience in the franchising world.

Cliff Duvernois:

So I, so my question for you would be, How is it that you're able to take this

Cliff Duvernois:

very, like coffee vertical, so to speak, and now tr transfer it so that way you

Cliff Duvernois:

could almost apply it across any vertical?

Cliff Duvernois:

how do you make that leap?

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

I think that comes from, I, I've read a ton.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And so am I always thinking about I, how my world, applies to other worlds

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

and how other worlds apply to my world.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And, the books I've written I hope are, incorporate a ton of what I've learned

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

through reading other people as well.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And I've got a whole chapter and grow that is about that, right?

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

That, that I can't, I just can't fathom people who say they don't read.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

It's here we have, we've got the smartest people in history.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

Who have had the most dynamic experiences, who write books.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And all of their knowledge and experiences available to us.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And so how is it that we don't read that?

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

and I just love, I love biographies.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

I love reading biographies.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

I love hearing the stories of people that have done amazing things.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And so I think that's one of the, probably the primary way I've been

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

able to take my insular little world of coffee, and maybe make it broader, and

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

more applicable to, to, more people.

Cliff Duvernois:

and I will gotta say, cuz you know, you're talking

Cliff Duvernois:

before about writing books.

Cliff Duvernois:

I'm starved for books like all the time.

Cliff Duvernois:

So I was thinking like, you know this gentleman, he's written

Cliff Duvernois:

Grind, he's written Grow.

Cliff Duvernois:

And then I wrote underneath of that, maybe his next book should be, Get

Cliff Duvernois:

Out, how to Sell Your Business and buy a Tropical Island somewhere.

Cliff Duvernois:

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee: Yeah, I do have a third book,

Cliff Duvernois:

so this is this from the outset.

Cliff Duvernois:

This was meant to be a three book series.

Cliff Duvernois:

And so there's a third book, that I'll, I don't know when I'll start writing it.

Cliff Duvernois:

Probably 20, 24.

Cliff Duvernois:

and, but it's, for me, a big part of being an owner of a business

Cliff Duvernois:

and managing a business is not that goal, which you just mentioned.

Cliff Duvernois:

Right, which is not the, Hey, let's build it, scale it, liquidate it, and go be

Cliff Duvernois:

rich somewhere, And I call it Go play.

Cliff Duvernois:

Go play.

Cliff Duvernois:

Who's richer at the country club, and by the way, there's, I have no,

Cliff Duvernois:

there's nothing wrong with wealth.

Cliff Duvernois:

but what I want to do is I want to, and grow talks about this, but this

Cliff Duvernois:

is really what my third book is gonna cover, which is I want to talk about

Cliff Duvernois:

the impact that we can have as, as owners of organizations like this.

Cliff Duvernois:

The positive impact we can have on the world.

Cliff Duvernois:

Yes.

Cliff Duvernois:

By building powerful organizations with dynamic teams of people.

Cliff Duvernois:

And so that is, to me, that's next level entrepreneurship.

Cliff Duvernois:

it's not about building a widget and making a, making an

Cliff Duvernois:

entrepreneur rich to okay, fine.

Cliff Duvernois:

That, but that's not to me anything to necessarily aspire to.

Cliff Duvernois:

What I aspire to and what I hope to encourage others to aspire

Cliff Duvernois:

to is build organizations.

Cliff Duvernois:

Powerful organizations that are doing really incredible things in the world.

Cliff Duvernois:

And then figure out as a group how to improve the human condition.

Cliff Duvernois:

To me that's next level entrepreneurship.

Cliff Duvernois:

Oh, maybe we should have led with that.

Cliff Duvernois:

Cuz now my head's full of questions, but we're at the time now where I

Cliff Duvernois:

have to say, Michael, thank you for so much for being on the show today.

Cliff Duvernois:

If somebody wants to connect with you, find your books, see what you're doing

Cliff Duvernois:

on the social, cuz you're like Mr.

Cliff Duvernois:

Adventure Guy as well, which we didn't even have time to talk about that topic.

Cliff Duvernois:

But what's the best way for people to connect with you?

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

I just launched a website this month with Grow.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

It's michael j mcfall.com and that's where all my links to all my social

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

media, and then they've, I've got a classroom section in there with

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

different stuff that I've put together.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

And there's a fair amount of content there.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

So that's the best place to connect is michael j mcfall.com.

Cliff Duvernois:

Mike, thank you so much for being on the show today.

Cliff Duvernois:

I've thoroughly enjoyed this conversation if you could not tell.

Cliff Duvernois:

But it's been absolutely great.

Cliff Duvernois:

So thank you once again for taking time to talk with us today.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

Thanks, Cliff.

Mike McFall, Biggby Coffee:

Thanks, for the opportunity and thanks for having me.

Cliff Duvernois:

Certainly, and for our audience, you can always

Cliff Duvernois:

roll on over to total michigan.com.

Cliff Duvernois:

Click on Mike's interview and get the links that he had mentioned above.

Cliff Duvernois:

We will see you next week with another story of, ordinary Michigander doing

Cliff Duvernois:

some pretty extraordinary things.

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