At a speaker event in the Donahue Auditorium on Nov. 7, Biggby Coffee Co-Founder, Co-CEO and Co-Visionary Mike McFall was introduced as “not your traditional entrepreneur.” Students and faculty in the audience were glued to their seats during his talk, titled “How to Get Epic $#!T Done in the World.” Most were shocked by McFall’s bluntness and transparency throughout the event.
During the presentation, McFall challenged how many people view business hierarchies and relationships within companies. He expressed how tirelessly he works to create an environment where his employees feel comfortable coming up to him with ideas, suggestions or concerns. He explained how many companies operate with a barrier between executives and employees, where CEOs view themselves as superior to everyone else. “I work hard to battle that [mentality] myself,” he said.
“My opinion is that most CEOs, if you gave them truth serum and asked them if they thought they were the smartest person in that room, I think most of them would think they are. And that’s a huge problem.”
This event was the 72nd event within the series dubbed the Mellen Executive Speaker Series hosted by the Boler College of Business. To start, the audience was given a brief history of McFall’s background by William Elliott, who is a professor of Economics and Finance at Boler as well as the chair of the Mellen Executive Speaker Series.
Elliott explained that McFall worked as a barista for about a year. In 1997, after a walk around Michigan State University’s campus with business partner Bob Fish, they shook hands and began their journey of growing Biggby’s brand as partners. Ever since, Biggby has flourished, now boasting over 400+ locations across 13 states.
Following the introduction, Elliot and McFall settled into two armchairs and began to discuss McFall’s tips for success and lessons learned along his journey. Prompted by Elliott’s questions, he began to divulge what he believed to be the most important key to success: relationships.
“To me… what is most important are the personal relationships you create and the relationships you have in your work,” explained McFall. “You can’t get a whole lot done in the world without those relationships.”
McFall offered a variety of ways to foster healthy relationships within a work setting. Another key tool he stressed was active listening. He noted a defining question one can ask to truly get the most from a conversation.
“The number one thing you can do when you’re actively listening is say these words: ‘You mind if I take a second and repeat back to you what you just said so that I can make sure I understand what you’re saying?’”
“My experience in the world is that I get it wrong probably 80% of the time,” McFall admitted. As he further explained, this question gave people room to explain to him what he might have missed or misinterpreted. This allows him to get more out of the conversation than he would have if he had simply been listening just to formulate a response.
McFall’s talk provided insight into how he runs his company and what has brought him and his business an incredible amount of success. Watch his full talk here.
