Team Is Everything: Elle Piper on Volleyball, Buffet Lines, and Building Culture at Forty-Three Locations

Elle Piper, Senior Director of Operations at 7 Leaves Cafe, came up through buffet-style multi-unit operations at Soup Plantation, watched the brand serve 1,600 customers a day and then go dark overnight during the pandemic, spent six months unemployed before landing at a Vietnamese coffee and tea brand she’d never heard of, and spent the next four years building the operational infrastructure that helped take it from a family-run concept to 43 locations across California, Nevada, Texas, Arizona, and Georgia.✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn:Growing up one of four sisters and how a six-person family system translated directly to a volleyball court and then to multi-unit operationsWhat patience actually means when your four units are outperforming a nine-unit district in volumeThe anti-role model lesson that started at Panera and shaped how Elle leads todayWhat it felt like to communicate the end of Soup Plantation to a team of people for whom it was the only job they had ever knownJoining 7 Leaves six weeks into the pandemic and what the second wave on Christmas Day looked likeWhy every store manager at 7 Leaves used to think they were on their own — and the bi-weekly structure that changed thatWhat a culture crash is and why it happens before a new location opens its doorsHow the menu changes depending on the community — and why Brazilian lemonade is on its fourth limited time offer runUsing AI to build a coaching tool that teaches store managers how to have crucial conversations the Simon Sinek and Brené Brown wayAphantasia, and why Elle asks interview candidates what happens when she says spaghetti and meatballs🌟 Elle’s Key Mentors:John Haywood (CEO, Soup Plantation): Showed her what steady-state consistent leadership looks like at the top — not through direct interaction but through observationSimon Sinek (Author and Speaker): The mentor she’ll never meet whose work on collective commitment and purpose shapes how she leads every dayDr. Becky Kennedy (Parenting Expert): The framework that helped Elle break a cycle with her oldest son and teach herself to lead with curiosity instead of reactionGabór Maté (Physician and Author): The lens through which she learned to give herself permission for the past and to stop blaming the adults who did their bestSunny (7 Leaves CEO): The person who hired her when she was almost out of hope and whose mission of being the change you wish to see became the operating system for everything she does👉 Don’t miss this conversation about what it actually looks like to build culture inside a brand at 40-plus locations, why the store manager is the most important person in the company, and how a volleyball player from Southern California ended up as the operational backbone of one of the most interesting beverage brands growing in the country right now.🔗 Connect with Elle Piper:Website: 7leavescafe.comLinkedIn: Elle Piper, 7 Leaves Cafe📤 Transcript Available: Team Is Everything: Elle Piper on Volleyball, Buffet Lines, and Building Culture at Forty-Three Locations📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast📤 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency — Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line. Website: addbackbenefits.com