August 25, 2026
From Babysitters to Restaurants — Episode 246: Adrienne Kallweit
with Adrienne Kallweit, Entrepreneur, restaurateur and co-founder of Seeking Sitters
40 min
From Babysitters to Restaurants — Episode 246: Adrienne Kallweit
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In this episode
In this episode I sit down with Adrienne Kallweit, a former guest and one of the entrepreneurs I've always looked to, and we catch up on quite a journey. From building Seeking Sitters — a national on-demand babysitting franchise founded in the Tulsa area, back before Uber was even Uber — to watching that business become a casualty of COVID, Adrienne and her husband David have lived out what it really means to keep going when the ground shifts under you.
What I love is how they leaned back into their roots. With degrees in construction management and seven kids at home, they started flipping properties, landed in Bartlesville to renovate an old downtown building, and accidentally became restaurateurs when they couldn't rent out their own retail spaces. That "pit stop" turned into a home away from home, and those restaurant concepts — 1908, Palace Rooms, and Lollipops — have now come back home to Tulsa, including a beautiful renovation of the old Goldie's location at 51st and Lewis.
We talk honestly about working alongside your spouse, building businesses you can eventually sell, why systems are non-negotiable, how to actually hire good people (call those references!), and the freeing truth that not everyone is going to like you. Adrienne is raw and generous with her wisdom, and whether you're a student in my class or a seasoned entrepreneur, there's something here to encourage you to keep going.
Key takeaways
- Don't reinvent an entire industry — layer your existing business skills onto one that already exists.
- Build every business as if you'll sell it someday so you're never trapped as the only one who can run it.
- Systems are non-negotiable, but build them around how your people actually behave.
- Hiring is a job, not an excuse — post, incentivize, provide a great workplace, and always check references.
- Use a paid working interview so both sides can tell if it's truly a fit.
- Not everyone will like you, and you shouldn't run your business to be liked.
- Community carries you through hard seasons — and in this one, Adrienne's community is her family working together.
- Find your passion wherever you are and make everything you do count.
Chapters
- 00:00COVID and Seeking Sitters on life support
- 01:00Welcome and a new season format
- 02:00Adrienne's entrepreneurial story and Seeking Sitters
- 04:00Pivoting to property development and flipping houses
- 05:00Falling in love with Bartlesville and accidental restaurants
- 08:00Bringing the restaurant concepts home to Tulsa
- 10:00Working with your spouse: dreamer, doer and balance
- 14:00Reading consumer behavior and knowing a hit
- 18:00Layering business skills onto the restaurant industry
- 21:00Building to sell and why systems are critical
- 25:00How to hire good people and check references
- 29:00Rapid fire: coffee, routines and best advice
- 33:00The book, community and following your passion
- 36:00Where to find Adrienne and the restaurants
“We follow the lead a lot. If the door opens, this is the direction we're supposed to go. You can tell the difference between when the doors are slamming shut and this is not the right direction.”
“If you see an industry that you're interested in, go learn about that industry, and layer it with the skills that you have.”
“You don't ever want to trap yourself that you're the only person that can run this company. That burns you out. Build it to where it can be sold when you're ready.”
“Not everyone is going to like you. You should not do anything based on being liked. You've got to put your head down and focus.”
Resources mentioned
About Adrienne
Entrepreneur, restaurateur and co-founder of Seeking Sitters
Adrienne Kallweit is a serial entrepreneur based in the Tulsa area who, with her husband David, co-founded the national babysitting franchise Seeking Sitters. A licensed private investigator with a background in construction management, she and David develop and renovate old buildings and now run a family of restaurant concepts — 1908, Palace Rooms and Lollipops — in Bartlesville and Tulsa, where they work alongside their children.
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