Meet Hifa maleki | Owner, Operator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Hifa maleki and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Hifa, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
Prior to being a business owner, I worked in the franchise industry for 12+ years helping entrepreneurs take the leap and open their own businesses. Throughout that time, working with over 120 groups to open their own businesses and supporting them through operations gave me more confidence to want to take that leap myself. I started independently building a business development plan to build a multi-unit brand concept in 2019 that I was going to start in 2021. In March 2020, the entire world shut down. At that time, a very close friend of mine called me up and asked me if I wanted to join him in opening a restaurant. We spent the first 6 months of Covid building a business plan and a brand concept just as a quarantine hobby. As we built the brand and spent time together discussing our vision, I knew that we had something very special, especially for our market. As we build the brand, we discussed our goals and what our potential was based on our experience. Coming from an extensive business and brand development background, we committed to build a hospitality group with our goal being to open 10 concepts in 5 years in our home town of Edmonton. My personal goal has always been to build a legacy while my professional goal was always to be known for being one of the best in the field in strategic business and brand development. It is great to be actively driving these goals especially alongside my business partner who gave me the nudge to get started quicker than originally planned.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I have always been an underdog anywhere I have worked. Very early in my career, one of my mentors told me something that created a momentum shift in my thinking and impacts me to this very day. He told me ‘the best way for you to move up, is for it to be very uncomfortable for people to keep you in the role you’re in because your results and reputation as a leader are the best’. When I learned this, I became lazer sharp focused on being the best producer and operator, while being critically mindful of my tone, etiquette and reputation as a leader and human. What truly differentiates me as a professional is my communication is to always lead with kindness, to be clear and thorough, while my plans are strategic with aggressive goals that are critically well thought out considering aspects of human and financial resources. I am known for being an impact leader to most outsiders looking into my professional career. For those that have worked with me, know me for being an empathetic, thoughtful and fair leader that can solve any problem put in front of them and the company. I believe that chaos feeds chaos so to problem solve and overcome any challenges, I break down every single detail, learn every part of it and put the puzzle back together. The biggest lesson I have learned is that anyone you hire must embody the same values as you. For me, I look for 3 things when hiring someone. 1 – Capacity 2 – Care 3 – Kindness. If you have a great training program, you can train anyone with the capacity to retain the training to execute their role. If they care they will do it, if they dont care you’ll have to manage them constantly. If they have the capacity to do their role, care to execute the details how you train them and lead with kindness you will win. If you hire team members that don’t lead with kindness in their communications, you have to manage the chaos they create because they struggle communicating with their peers, leaders, vendors and customers. You can choose to run a 100 meter sprint with our without hurdles. It’s the same distance, but 1 presents more challenges. The right people, allow you to run faster.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I love people visiting the city and having the opportunity to show them around. I would first make a reservation to of course my restaurant El Corazon so that we can enjoy a Strawberry Mojito and Vanilla Margarita along with some Tapas. Then we would head to our new restaurant El Jardin located downtown to enjoy a Lavender Grapefruit Mojito and Mojito Ceviche. We would then head to Baiju to show them their environment while we are entertained by their great bartenders. The next day we would go for brunch at Workshop Eatery which is an absolute must followed by a walk through the river valley. For dinner we would go to Barbricco for some charcuterie and wine followed by a night cap at Bodega on 103rd street.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I believe that mentorship is critically important not only to personal success but for the business. Where mentorship is present in the culture and infrastructure of a business, you see not only individual performance improve but also the performance of the business. When deciding what companies to work for, through my interview process I have always evaluated what I will be able to learn from the people I work with. When interviewing for Orangetheory Fitness Canada, I met both David Hardy and Blake MacDonald who are incredibly successful entrepreneurs with extensive business development and operations experience. I decided to work with them because I saw great potential in a brand that was just getting off the ground in Canada with less than 10 locations at the time, but saw bigger potential in working with 2 professionals with extensive experience building brands as business owners with a diverse portfolio of brands under their wings. While many see mentorship roles as sit downs with conversations and goals, my experience with my mentors was significantly more constant, active, rapid and high pressure. Throughout my 8+ years with the brand, I learned more about people, business, brand development, marketing and communication than all my previous years combined. Together we reached our initial goal of 100 studios by my 3rd year with the brand while supporting an amazing culture in the brand’s operations. My biggest take-aways working with them is that you build the brand for future scalability. 50% of what you do is for the now and 50% needs to be relevant in the future so that you can scale your growth more seamlessly. There is no doubt that if I didnt work for them, I wouldnt have been confident enough to take the leap to open my own business so soon.

Website: elcorazonyeg.com

Instagram: @hifabulous

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hifa-maleki-8013591a/