Setting the Table

708: Danny Meyer - How You Make People Feel: The Founder of Shake Shack & Union Square Hospitality Group on Culture as Soil, the 49/51 Hiring Formula, and Leading With Generosity

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk, 27 September 2026. The author is the guest. The book comes up at 2 min 34 sec in.

Host Ryan Hawk introduces "Setting the Table" as Danny Meyer's classic book. Meyer explains he wrote it to teach himself, that the process of writing gets ideas out of his heart and head, and that its central sentence—business is all about how you make people feel—came to him while writing the introduction last, after finishing the whole book. He also describes it as being about the power of hospitality.

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