Hospitality Reinvented, Episode 18: Your Executive Summary + Pitch Deck
David Klemt
Partner, KRG Hospitality Inc. | Bar, Beverage and Guest Experience Coach | IHI 2024 Global Top 100 Social Media Influencers in Hospitality | Host of Bar Hacks, IHI 2024 Global Top 40 Hospitality Podcasts
"If you can’t sell your vision, you can’t expect anyone to fund or execute your vision."
This isn’t just a catchy line, it’s the reality of launching, scaling, or reinventing any hospitality business.
You could have the best concept, the strongest brand, the most bullet-proof financials, but if you can’t clearly and confidently communicate that vision to investors, lenders, or even your team, it doesn’t matter.
On episode 18 of the Hospitality Reinvented podcast, Doug Radkey wraps up the last eight episodes on playbooks, and shows you how to distill everything into a high-impact executive summary and investor pitch deck.
Full episode:
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Turn this Way, Episode 23: Know Your Limits
Success isn’t about doing everything—it’s about knowing what not to do.
On this episode of the Turn This Way mindset podcast, KRG VP Jennifer Radkey dives into the importance of recognizing your weaknesses and setting boundaries so you can focus on what truly matters.
Jenn shares actionable strategies to turn limitations into opportunities by hiring, delegating, or automating tasks.
Whether in business or life, learning to work within your limits instead of against them can be a game-changer.
Tune in and discover how to turn this way toward efficiency, balance, and long-term success!
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Bar Hacks: Episode 133 with Michael Suomi
Suomi Design Works is an award-winning hotel design studio dedicated to approaching every hospitality project with an exceptional level of creativity. In fact, Michael Suomi, president of the studio, actively seeks out unique, challenging projects.
On this episode of the Bar Hacks podcast, host David Klemt chats with Michael about a number of these extraordinary projects. Further, Michael shares his approach to onboarding clients, the importance of storytelling and crafting narratives for a concept, building unique teams for exceptional projects, trends he thinks may stand out in 2025 (and which he'd like to see disappear), and more.
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Or wherever you listen to podcasts. Cheers!
5 Books to Read this Month: March 2025
written by David Klemt
Our March book selections focus on outdoor cooking, miniaturized cocktails, restaurant design, hotel design, and prioritizing the right things.
To review the book recommendations from February 2025, click here.
Let’s jump in!
Tiny Cocktails: The Art of Miniature Mixology
Several years ago, Tales of the Cocktail featured an event highlighting Mar-tiny’s, miniature serves of an array of Martinis. Over the years, I’ve come across mini drinks at bars and pop-up events, and people have always seemed to find the concept compelling. Couple this interesting way of serving with today’s apparent preference for imbibing less alcohol and we have a recipe for successful drinks.
From Amazon: “Tiny Cocktails offers a unique and creative approach to mixology for those who want to savor delicious cocktails without overindulging. The recipes showcase smaller drinks with big flavors—an ideal way to explore new flavors and refine your mixology skills without making a full-drink commitment. Each drink comes in around 3-6 ounces, with about half the alcoholic punch of a full-sized cocktail.”
Symon’s Dinners Cooking Out: 100 Recipes That Redefine Outdoor Cooking
Funnily enough, this also reminds me of an awesome, engaging Tales of the Cocktail event. Not too many TOTCs ago, Kimpton Hotels hosted an event during which every food item (save for a couple of cheese boards) was prepared outside, over fire. The result was a fantastic dinner that showcased how the simplest form of cooking, when coupled with creativity, can produce something spectacular.
From Amazon: “In Symon’s Dinners Cooking Out, Michael Symon offers 100 recipes for outdoor cooking including desserts and drinks too. Featuring fan-favorite recipes from his popular Food Network show, Symon’s Dinners Cooking Out, and brand new recipes, this cookbook is sure to excite budding and expert grillers alike. From live-fire classics like Bacon-Cheddar Smash Burgers to unexpected dishes like Fettuccine with Smoked Tomato Sauce, cooks who take it outside will find all kinds of creative ways to use their grills year-round.”
Tasteful: New Interiors for Restaurants and Cafés
I’ve had the opportunity to speak to multiple hospitality-focused interior designers on the KRG Hospitality-produced Bar Hacks podcast. In each case, I’ve asked about their process for helping clients share their vision for a restaurant, bar, or other concept and transform it into a tangible design.
To that end, I present Tasteful, which I hope will help spark creativity in anyone considering the interior design of their own concept, and explain what they’re visualizing to others.
From Amazon: “The ever-evolving landscape of the gastronomic industry never fails to surprise with new ideas and trends—and Tasteful is a testament to that. A follow-up on the earlier gestalten title Appetizer, this book is a curated selection of the most eye-catching interiors of new restaurants, cafes, bars and all kinds of food places. Featuring a variety styles from a host of diverse locations around the planet, Tasteful serves as both a travel guide for intrepid foodies and an inspiration for those passionate about design.”
Design: The Leading Hotels of the World
On the most-recent episode of the Bar Hacks episode I speak with Michael Suomi, an award-winning architect and interior designer who specializes in unique and complex hotel projects (along with restaurant and bar designs). That episode, and this book, should inspire those opening a hotel to knock their design out of the ballpark, and create a narrative for their property.
From Amazon: “Embark on a stunning visual journey through The Leading Hotels of the World, a collection of the world’s most exclusive independent luxury hotels, which consistently dominates prestigious awards, securing top honors in Travel + Leisure’s World’s Best Awards and Condé Nast Traveler’s Readers’ Choice Awards.”
Undoing Urgency: Reclaim Your Time for the Things that Matter Most
One of our goals for KRG Hospitality clients sounds simple on the surface: spend less time on their business. Imagine having the ability to step away for multiple weeks throughout the year, to actually unplug and not even think about your bar, restaurant, cafe, nightclub, or hotel. We want that for all of our guests, because while we can help make brands, brick-and-mortar businesses, and menus, and make operations run more smoothly, none of us can make more time.
Undoing Urgency, likewise, is about time, and what we do with it.
From Amazon: “Undoing Urgency…details the GAME Plan (Goals, Actions, Metrics, and Execution), which turns core values into high-priority goals and minimum effective dose actions for maximum impact. The GAME Plan works for all goals, having been used at the highest levels in business, health, life, and the most personal ambitions. It takes readers on a journey of personal discovery to identify what brings them value and joy. Ultimately, Reynolds wants to help people break free of urgency and start living a value-driven life dedicated to what is most important to them.”
Note: There are links to Amazon listings for each book on this list. Neither the author nor KRG Hospitality received compensation, monetary or otherwise, in exchange for this post or the listings, nor will they receive a portion of the sales of these books if purchased via these links.
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