#110 with Kat Cole - Ideas From the Head of a $4B+ Business

Episode Summary

Executive Summary: Kat Cole, president/COO of Focus Brands, discusses her unconventional rise from Hooters hostess to global food executive, how humility must be balanced with courage, and how Focus Brands navigated COVID by prioritizing safety and cash preservation. The conversation then turns to two future-facing ideas: a consumer app that scores personal environmental impact and a “food as pharmacy” restaurant model built around individualized nutrition, off-premise convenience, and franchise scalability.

Main Topics: Kat Cole’s unconventional career trajectory (Priority: 5/5): Cole explains how she moved from waitress and franchise trainer to VP at 26, then into top leadership at Focus Brands, emphasizing that growth came by taking on responsibility as the company expanded. Imposter syndrome, humility, and courage (Priority: 5/5): She distinguishes between classic imposter syndrome and over-indexing on humility, arguing that leaders should pair curiosity and respect with the courage to use their voice and challenge others when needed. Leading through COVID and crisis management (Priority: 5/5): Cole walks through Focus Brands’ pandemic response: protecting people, preserving cash, navigating fragmented regulations, and helping franchisees survive while malls and airports shut down. Idea 1: Environmental impact scoring app (Priority: 4/5): She proposes an app that lets users score the real environmental impact of everyday choices—food, transportation, home goods, and more—while benchmarking behavior and fighting greenwashing. Idea 2: Food-as-pharmacy restaurant concept (Priority: 5/5): She outlines a modern restaurant chain that uses health data or diagnostics to recommend menus tailored to needs, combining wellness, convenience, and franchisable multi-channel operations. Delivery, ghost kitchens, and multi-brand restaurant strategy (Priority: 4/5): Cole evaluates ghost kitchens as viable mainly in dense markets and notes Focus Brands’ advantage in co-locating multiple complementary brands to improve economics and support delivery.

Key Arguments: Career growth often comes from saying yes to responsibility before you feel fully ready, then learning fast inside expanding organizations. What people often call imposter syndrome may actually be excessive humility; leaders need confidence to match their competence and role. The best crisis leadership is ruthless prioritization: first keep people safe, then preserve cash, and avoid distractions that don’t serve those goals. Consumer-facing climate tools can drive better behavior if they are simple, gamified, and capable of showing real downstream impact rather than greenwashed marketing claims. A scalable health-oriented restaurant model should integrate diagnosis, personalized nutrition, off-premise convenience, and franchise economics rather than just marketing itself as “healthy.” Ghost kitchens are not a universal solution; they work best in dense markets, but multi-brand operators can make them more viable because multiple concepts can share one footprint.

Data Points: Focus Brands global consumer product sales: $4–5 billion - Cole’s overview of the company’s scale Focus Brands units: just under 7,000 - Portfolio size across brands Countries of operation: 60 - Global reach of the business Number of brands: 7 - Cinnabon, Auntie Anne’s, Carvel, Jamba Juice, Moe’s Southwest Grill, McAlister’s, Schlotzsky’s Age when she became VP: 26 - Cole’s early rise within Hooters’ executive team Revenue at that company during her VP tenure: $700–800 million - Scale of the business when she was a young executive Age when she became president of Cinnabon: 31 - She references becoming president and helping turn the brand around after the recession Focus Brands mall exposure: just over 15% - Malls represented a minority of total business, though they were more important for some brands Time on hand for many small operators: 14–21 days of cash - Used to explain why preserving franchisee liquidity during COVID was critical Time in Hooters franchise-launch roles: 20–40 days per launch - Duration of international trips to open new markets Travel regions launched: Australia, Central America, South America, Asia - Examples of early international expansion work Children’s age during ICU episode: 7 months - Cole was managing COVID-era business issues while her infant daughter was hospitalized

Pivotal Quotes: "“I over indexed on humility and curiosity at times when I really needed to pull forward more courage and confidence.”" — Kat Cole: On the difference between being modest and being effective as a young leader "“Protect people. Preserve cash.”" — Kat Cole: Her concise summary of Focus Brands’ COVID response priorities "“Humility is good, but I need to pair it with confidence and courage so that I'm always showing up in the way that I should.”" — Kat Cole: On balancing self-awareness with leadership responsibility

Implications: The episode highlights how unconventional backgrounds can produce strong leaders, why crisis response demands disciplined priorities, and how future consumer businesses may blend health, sustainability, and digital convenience into scalable franchise models.