Introducing Breakfast Clubbing

A new way to do Breakfast Club reminders

Hi all.

Welcome to the new weekly reminder mechanism for inviting you to Breakfast Club. I was about to post the stuff below on Linkedin, and realized that I needed to have this destination in place. So this will be the only time I send on Friday. Beginning Monday you’ll get this email instead of the one directly from me. More about that below…

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The Breakfast Club Esprit de Corps

When I started appearing at Five Leaves every Wednesday at 8:30a there was no particular aspiration for what Breakfast Club should become. In fact the idea of doing it on a repeating basis wasn’t even mine - Ryan Babenzien suggested that part. All I wanted was an excuse to see people again, post pandemic. Breakfast meetings had been a signature of mine in the height of the VICE days, and I missed the exchange of ideas at that time of the morning - when I’d otherwise have been cramming to catch up on cursory emails or whatever. I figured I’d give it a shot. A cappuccino and an egg sandwich a week was minimal outlay.

Two and a half years later, it’s starting to feel like something else - a thing with real momentum. Former colleagues, friends and strangers have reached out to ask if they can borrow the ‘breakfast club’ designation for re-occuring gatherings in their home zones - LA, Philly, Austin, London, Brighton, Lisbon, Portland, Milan, Cannes and Seoul among them.

The answer is yes, happily. Help me by sticking to a few tenets, and I’ll happily help you get things going. To wit, the ‘rules’ of Breakfast Club, as I deem them:

1. Everyone’s invited - especially you. Eliminate the barrier to entry and expand your aperture.

2. There’s no agenda. No required buy-in, no prep necessary. And no pitching.

3. We do it because it’s fun. Network and business benefits are incidental.

That’s it. Just those. Shouts out to Isaac Bess, Heather Pieske, Ricky Engelberg, Ben Pruess, Fern Pucheu, Julie Gerstein, Amy Daroukakis, Lillian Brown, Robb Henzi, Helen Hollyman, Jeff Weiner and Kat Popiel for co-hosting BC events both with and without my involvement. You all rule.

Beyond that, a little advice:

• It’s not Breakfast Club if it’s not a re-occurring thing. So schedule it as often as you can commit to showing up.

• Partners or co-hosts help. Without stalwarts like Eric Korsh, Zac Mallard or Leann Abad covering when I was out of town, we’d have lost momentum long ago.

• Pick a venue to call home, and create a relationship with it. We bring a big crowd to Le Crocodile every week, and they reward us with breakfast fries and special rates (and great service). They don’t require a headcount in advance, which makes organizing easy.

• Let people find their own rhythms.  Let them introduce themselves to each other. Don’t make them talk if they don’t want to. If they arrive late or need to excuse themselves early, it’s fine.

• Let everyone pay for themselves. It means they’ll show up without preconceptions.  If another party wants to underwrite, as our friends at On_Discourse or Mojo Supermarket have done in the past, let them - but let them know they’re doing it for the community, not the opportunity to run the table. They’ll get it - or you don’t want them there.

There are others, but since they’re mainly for people curious about organizing a local version, I’ll save them for now.  I’m starting breakfastindustries.substack.com as a way to both remind you of upcoming Breakfast Club events and to encourage new folks to join us sometime.

In keeping with the rules, everyone’s invited, so feel free to share this with, friends, colleagues, family members, or your social graphs.  If you’re not already on the list but have found your way here, feel free to sign up now. And if you’re over the weekly reminder, it’s easier than ever to unsubscribe. No umbrage will be taken, promise.

See you at Breakfast. If not this week, another one soon.

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