Brewing Success: From Barista to Owner of Biggby Coffee With Mike McFall

After starting as a barista in 1996 to becoming the co-founder, owner, and Co-CEO of Biggby Coffee, this week’s guest on Insight Out is Mike McFall, a growth-minded entrepreneur that believes in the power of self-awareness, positivity, and conscious capitalism as the core values of a successful business. 

His book, Grind: A No-Bullshit Approach to Take Your Business from Concept to Cash Flow, focuses on the importance of revenue and practical ways to build cash flow in a budding company. He also explores his philosophy that business requires us to be aggressive and simultaneously self-aware. 

In this episode, Mike and I discuss the road to becoming CEO of a successful corporation, why conscious capitalism and company culture are at the core of employee retention, why focus is a critical component in building a business, and more.

In this episode, we discuss:

• The key lessons that sailing around the world at 16 taught Mike (3:40)
• Mike’s journey as a Red Wings fan and the importance of visioning work (5:43)
• A breakdown of the visualization process (10:06)
• How Mike was introduced to conscious capitalism and the way it transformed his business (13:10)
• How Mike became partners with Bob Fish (23:44)
• The importance of competition in business (27:28)
• Why self awareness is a critical component of your business (29:43)
• How to ask for valuable feedback (33:10)
• The biggest contributor to Biggby Coffee’s success (35:41)
• Mike’s advice for aspiring or current business owners (38:26) 
• Why entrepreneurs need to be like the sun (44:30) 
• Mike’s approach to fostering a people-first company (48:07)
• How to develop company culture that respects the employees (51:37)
• Where to find Mike McFall and his final word of advice (56:35) 

Notable Quotes:

• “When you say something enough, you begin to hear yourself say it, other people hear you say it, and they can support you. And it helps to reaffirm that you’re on the course to go where you want to go.” – Billy (9:26)
• “The real root of conscious capitalism is that it’s an inclusive environment where you don’t make tradeoffs between these different components and that you make decisions that everyone benefits from.” – Mike (20:29) 
• “Your self awareness is the most critical component to the success of your business.” – Mike (30:31) 
• “In the end it’s not about revenue. What it’s about is it’s about improving, and it’s an obsession with improvement. And when we obsess with improvement… the revenue generation, the growth, is a subset of the obsession with improvement.” – Mike (42:34)
• “Leadership is about setting the example and then living within that constantly.” – Mike (47:16)
• “In the end, people just want to be around other people who they relate to and they feel a connection to as another human being.” (59:19)

Resources & Links:

Mike McFall 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-biggby 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mikejmcfall

Biggby Coffee: https://www.biggby.com/ 

Billy Samoa Saleebey 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/billysamoa 

Email: billy@podify.com and saleebey@gmail.com 

Insight Out 

Website: https://insightoutshow.com/

This is an encore episode and was originally published on December 30, 2022

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