Month: October 2025

What if your next move isn’t another location—it’s owning a moment in your guest’s life?

Mark Rampolla built ZICO into a category and now backs founders with a $600M fund; his playbook is built for operators under pressure. We talk about the five-year reality of product-market fit, why velocity per store beats “more units,” and how owning a specific occasion (post-workout, post-shift, post-party) unlocks scale.

Mark breaks down risk discipline—grow deep before wide—and what acquirers actually buy: a future customer and a missing occasion, not just a product.

If you’re tempted to expand because it feels like progress, this episode shows a sharper path: focus, proof, and traction that travels.

To learn more, visit groundforcecapital.com
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Free 5-Day Restaurant Marketing Masterclass – This is a live training where you’ll learn the exact campaigns Josh has built and tested in real restaurants to attract new guests, increase visit frequency, and generate sales on demand. Save your spot at restaurantbusinessschool.com

Full Comp is brought to you by Yelp for Restaurants: In July 2020, a few hundred employees formed Yelp for Restaurants. Our goal is to build tools that help restaurateurs do more with limited time.

We have a lot more content coming your way! Be sure to check out our other content:

Yelp for Restaurants Podcasts

Restaurant expert videos & webinars

I’m Josh Kopel, a Michelin-awarded restaurateur and the creator of the Restaurant Scaling System. I’ve spent decades in the industry, building, scaling, and coaching restaurants to become more profitable and sustainable. On this show, I cut through the noise to give you real, actionable strategies that help independent restaurant owners run smarter, more successful businesses.

In this episode, I dive into strategies for boosting restaurant profitability without raising prices. I explain why it’s so important to see restaurants as providers of time slots rather than just food and beverage, and how that shift impacts service. I share why the first 20 minutes of the guest experience matter most, plus the tactics I use to improve pacing, satisfaction, and table turns.

Takeaways:

• Most restaurant marketing fails because it’s built on guesswork.
• Awareness doesn’t pay the rent, behavior does.
• If it doesn’t move a booking, a purchase or return visit, then it’s just noise.
• We want to align with behavior, not alter it.
• Triggers turn offers into rituals.
• The fastest money you can make is in the list you already own.
• Stop chasing strangers while your regulars gather dust.
• Create experiences that use desire that already exists.
• If it wouldn’t move you, it probably won’t move them.
• Your marketing must move the needle in your business.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Restaurant Success

01:21 Reframing Restaurant Profitability

02:51 Understanding Time as Inventory

05:45 Optimizing Service for Profitability

If you’ve got a marketing or profitability related question for me, email me directly at josh@joshkopel.com and include Office Hours in the subject line. If you’d like to scale the profitability of your restaurant in only 5 days, sign up for our FREE 5 Day Restaurant Profitability Challenge by visiting https://joshkopel.com.