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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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.
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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.