#2 Tasos Katsaounis (Part II) "From consulting to baking bread...the alternate road to entrepreneurism"
Tasos Katsaounis was born and raised in Dallas Texas, where his family owned a bar and grill. Whilst helping out in the family business, Tasos spent 22 years in business consulting, until he decided to take the road less travelled.
Tasos is part of a growing breed of entrepreneurs, applying years of experience, maturity, and intuition to forge a new path and follow his passion. In Tasos' case, building the Bread Man Baking Co, into an independent commercial bakery based in Houston. Today, Bread Man Baking Co. is partnering with some of the country's top chefs, hotels and grocery retailers.
26min 46sec: Reflections and questions to test your thinking and help you put the learnings into action. There are some wonderful life lessons about backing yourself and pursuing your why, in this case for Tasos…building strong community connections through the art of baking bread.
Tasos talks with clarity and authenticity and there are three themes we explore: evolution, community connection and conviction.
Evolution: Tasos shares this in the context of his evolution as a leader. Running his own business, he now has a heightened self-awareness of his decisions and how more than ever, he is accountable for his actions…nurturing a growing business and hiring good people who depend on him and he depends on them. The question for you is, how do you hold yourself accountable for your actions? Are you an effective leader? And why?
Community connection – this is an obvious point of difference for Tasos and The Bread Man Baking Co, building community connections in an engaging, simple, and authentic way. Tasos is nurturing community brand advocates, who are super passionate and loyal. That’s powerful!
Which local business would you highly recommend because of their brand promise and product? Now let that business owner know what you think of them and share it with a friend. If you have a business, how are you building brand advocates? Do you know why your customers select you and not a competitor?
Conviction. Tasos said, “I’m doing exactly what I’m supposed to do.” Tasos has a strong conviction on what he is trying to build…there was no point in our interview where he spoke about his product. Tasos has a strong growth mindset, meaning he is focused on finding solutions to the challenges that emerge when growing any business. My question to you is, “are you doing exactly what you’re supposed to be doing?”
