In the restaurant industry, it’s easy to see brands you’ve known your whole life and never know how they actually started. That’s why I love working with Founders. The Founder story is the catalyst, the fuel that takes an idea and makes it a reality. Twenty, 30, 40 years later, everyone takes the brand for granted in the landscape of the industry. What sometimes gets lost are the early Founder days where we learn what sets great brands apart. That’s what makes this episode of “Built to Breakthrough” so powerful.

If your Founder-led brand is too big to be small and too small to be big, you are in the Stuck Zone. Tim Gannon has been there. He joined Outback at 40, $400,000 in debt and holding $37. Today he is an Inc. magazine Entrepreneur of the Year, an EY Entrepreneur of the Year, a U.S. Business Hall of Fame inductee, a five-time U.S. Open Polo champion and the creator of the Bloomin’ Onion, the No. 1 casual-dining appetizer for 37 years.

On this episode of the “Founderology: Built to Breakthrough” podcast, Tim shares the origins of an iconic brand: Outback Steakhouse.

One question every Founder must answer for themselves

Before Tim talks about partners, he talks about the mirror. His mother gave him the answer at 16. It sounded like a compliment, and it was not; however, it shaped how Outback was built.

“You start with yourself. You start with understanding who you are as a person. And the most important thing to understand about yourself is your flaw, your Achilles’ heel.” — Tim Gannon

- The flaw Tim’s mother named and why it was not a compliment

- How knowing your weakness becomes your partnering filter

- Why the flaw you will never fix could be your downfall or your blueprint

The secret behind Outback

Most people credit the Bloomin’ Onion. Tim points somewhere else. He shares with entrepreneurs there is one way to cut corners on the road to scale. It is the same decision that turned $37 into an iconic brand.

“My role is to share how to cut some corners. And the way to do that is pick good partners.” — Tim Gannon

- Why Chris Sullivan and Bob Basham were the perfect counterweight to Tim’s biggest flaw

- The question his partners kept asking that Tim never thought to ask

- How to tell when a partner’s flaw is also what makes them great

The million-dollar pivot from tactical to strategic

At 40, Tim was $400,000 in debt at 18% interest with a family. Then Al Copeland handed him a $1 million check. What he did with it, and why his partner did not find out until he read Tim’s book, is the moment Tim calls the pivot of his life.

“It was the pivot in my life from being transactional to being strategic.” — Tim Gannon

- Tim’s four-word answer for any Founder ready to make the pivot

- Why Tim tells investors chasing a quick exit to “get out of the business”

- The one-third, one-third, one-third rule behind every Outback decision

Just like an onion, our discussion had many layers

There was so much richness in this conversation that we simply cannot share it all here. These lessons are equally powerful, and you will want to hear them in Tim’s own words.

- Taking care of your people: why genuinely investing in your people is a key for growth

- Finding your Velcro: finding what sticks for you and your brand

- The significance of Founders: why Tim believes Founders are the ones who start the ball moving

Lean forward and listen now

At 78, Tim is still leaning forward. His last piece of advice for Founders is one sentence that will change how you think about equity, partners and growth. It is worth the listen on its own.

If you are in the Stuck Zone right now, this is the conversation you want to hear. Every iconic brand we might take for granted today started with Founders who knew themselves, chose the right partners, refused to stay stuck and thought beyond the moment.

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts. Then order Tim’s book, “Bloomin’ Adventures,” at outbacktim.com.

Join us at the Founderology Growth Summit, Aug. 2-4, 2027, in Chicago.

It started with the worst ice cream truck experience a parent could imagine: broken down, smoke billowing, and Tony's three-year-old daughter still running toward it. Where everyone else saw a truck to avoid, Tony saw an American icon waiting to be rebuilt. How does a Founder turn a moment most parents would rather forget into the largest food truck business in America?

Inside this episode, hear Tony speak about his most critical decisions:

1. The $3,000 franchise royalty he has NEVER raised, even after nearly two decades of hearing exactly what that choice was costing him.
2. How his "side hustle" to teach his children business lessons resulted in Kona Ice's success, with Travelin' Tom's Coffee and Beverly Ann's Cookies rolling right behind it.
3. The week every event in America shut down in 2020 and 95% of his business disappeared. What Tony did next is a masterclass in leadership.

Tony shares so many practical decision points and leadership lessons that Founders are dealing with or can easily relate to in their own businesses. One of the key focuses for Kona is simplicity, and when the moment came to pour money into more technology that could threaten that simplicity, Tony held a conviction most Founders will recognize.

Find out what moved Tony to invest millions anyway, and what it unlocked. This is a turning point you have to hear. If you are holding a hard line on any topic in your own business right now, this is the decision inflection point to hear firsthand.

Stuck is a zone, not a destination

You know the zone. The business is working, the growth is real, and still the next move refuses to show itself. No Founder gets out of it by waiting.

Tony Lamb has been moving out of this zone for nearly two decades, from one truck to all 50 states and three brands. Press play and hear how Tony built Kona Ice … one fearless Founder decision at a time.

Steele shared with me more than once that his answer would be controversial, and he was true to his word. He is direct, generous with what he has learned, and unwilling to pretend any of it was easy.

His own start proves it. A noncompete locked him out of fitness after incredible success. The first expert he called said restaurants take a different kind of person. He ignored the expert and opened CRISP & GREEN anyway.

Inside this episode, Steele takes you inside three decisions he had to get right:

1. The first expert he called said he would not succeed. Hear the three questions Steele answered before he rolled the dice anyway.
2. Why he handed the CEO seat to someone else, what pulled him back two years later, and his simple test for whether your business is ready for an outside CEO.
3. The decision he says "probably should have killed us" during a time when everyone else was cutting back.

Most concepts get built first and franchised later. Steele reversed the order. He designed CRISP & GREEN for franchising on day one, which meant the store had to cost less to build, the food had to cost less, and labor had to be better than anyone else's.

Every Founder hears it: What you want cannot be done. Steele heard it from his chef. He wanted high protein, low sugar, no dairy, and food people crave. The chef said no. Steele held the line. They tested over 200 recipes. About 12 made the opening menu. Steele also shares many of his hard -won lessons on menu innovation, giving up Founder control, and what really drives strong franchise growth.

If you are being told it cannot be done, listen to how Steele made it all happen!

Press play. Steele holds nothing back about the hard days and the big calls that went into building CRISP & GREEN to breakthrough!