MY GROUNDING STATEMENT

Owning a small business is both a professional and a personal journey.

When you use your business challenges as opportunities to grow first your technical skills and then your emotional awareness, you can ultimately find true meaning as an entrepreneur.

A smiling woman with long brown hair, wearing a black shirt and blue jeans, standing with her hand on her hip beside a wooden planter with colorful flowers on a city sidewalk.

During Covid-19, small groups of restaurant owners popped up in my city and state, building a network of support and resources as we all struggled to survive. As I participated in these, I saw that that sharing my “secrets” and being in community with fellow restaurateurs was deeply needed. The restaurant industry is known for its low margins, high fail rate and constant staff turnover, all of which make it so challenging to succeed

Many restaurant owners are wearing multiple hats – cooking the food, hiring the staff, posting on social media, handling equipment repairs, ordering the ingredients, managing the finances and so much more. In a larger organization, each of these duties would have an entire department dedicated to it, and yet, in our small businesses, the owner(s) are doing all this work on their own.

Good, industry-specific support is needed in order for restaurant owners to survive. And this is the need from which Left Brain Solutions was born.

Since 2007, I’ve owned and operated the Mayan Café, an independent restaurant in Louisville, KY, alongside my business partner/brother-in-law. There, I have managed the operations, finances, staffing, marketing, catering department, beverage program and long-term strategy. Additionally, I have coached over 400 aspiring and existing entrepreneurs under the Small Business Development Center program and now through my own coaching company, Left Brain Solutions.

I’m Anne Shadle, a business coach & restaurateur, and I help entrepreneurs build successful businesses they enjoy operating.

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Why should I hire Anne as my business coach?

I own an independent restaurant with my business partner, and while most restaurants last
only three years, in January of 2027, we are celebrating our 20th anniversary.
Over the years,I have hired, trained, and released hundreds of employees, and
we have engaged in multiple expansions and various types of growth.

Many other business coaches don’t have the real-life business ownership experience I do. The lessons I have learned and tools I share come from decades of lived experience, taking my business to bed with me each night. I am the woman I am because of the role I’ve had inside my business.

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Four women sitting in a semi-circle during an indoor panel discussion or interview. One woman is speaking into a microphone, while the others listen. Water bottles and personal items are on the table in front of them.
A woman with brown hair tied in a ponytail wearing earrings and a checked blazer sitting at a table with a white mug, a tablet, and a keyboard, looking at a screen.
A woman in a floral shirt smiling while working in a commercial kitchen with a chef cooking in the background.
Group of seven diverse people standing and sitting in a row inside a cafe with dark wood and patterned tiles.
A woman with long brown hair, wearing a black jacket and green top, sitting at a table next to a smiling man in a white chef's coat. They are in a restaurant with a red brick wall and a window in the background.
“Working with Anne has been one of the most important and fulfilling experiences of my small business life to date. I started my food biz on a whim, with the confidence to start it and the vibes to keep it going— but the total lack of practicality that it needed to be, well, practical. Anne taught me all kinds of things from Quickbooks to taxes and back again a million times until I finally had it figured out.

I’ll be calling her every single time I feel in a small business jam, because she always brings ease and comfort to me, while helping me break down a plan for growth and evolution within my business. It has been a pleasure getting her perspective on things I can strive for and things I can let go of inside this passionate business of mine. The coaching she has provided has been truly life-giving, and I would recommend her a million times over.”
— Riah, restaurant owner