Month: November 2025

• Habit Burger CEO Shannon Hennessy runs the up-and-coming brand in the Yum! portfolio.
• She told Business Insider about her non-negotiable daily routine, from wake-up to sundown.
• Hennessy swears by her morning rituals, from a daily workout to gaining insight from her Oura ring.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Shannon Hennessy, the CEO of Habit Burger, the newest chain in the Yum! Brands portfolio, which also includes fast food titans like Taco Bell and KFC. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I’m a mornings-and-margins kind of person. I get my workout in before most inboxes are awake, and I protect my sleep as if it were one of my core KPIs.

When I joined The Habit Burger & Grill in 2022, after serving as CFO of KFC’s Global Division for two years, my first focus was to protect the things that make Habit special — the open-flame cooking, consistency, and care — while improving the economics of every restaurant. With that foundation built, I’ve been able to shift my attention to growth, finding ways to connect Habit’s fresh, feel-good food with real, everyday value.

I spend a lot of time in the restaurants, listening to guests and our teams, and I’m constantly looking for inspiration, whether that’s from a peer’s podcast, a great book, or the design of a patio umbrella.

My belief is simple: people shouldn’t have to choose between food that tastes good and food that feels good. If we continue to deliver both consistently and with heart, growth will take care of itself.

Here’s what a typical day looks like for me.

I wake around 5:30 a.m.

I’m a morning person. Most days, I wake up around 5:30 a.m., usually a few minutes before my alarm sounds.

I set up my coffee station the night before so I can creep downstairs without waking anyone, flip it on, and grind beans for a hot cup.

Later in the morning, I’ll switch to an iced latte — I love playing with flavors, but the first mug is sacred.

Move first, intensity by feel

I plan my workouts every Sunday and block them on my calendar. My anchor sessions are two Orangetheory classes a week.

If I’m home on Saturday, I’ll join a strength boot camp outdoors at a local park. On other days, I mix Peloton rides (Cody, Leanne, and Christine are my go-tos), plus Pilates, yoga, and long walks.

I wear an Oura Ring mainly for sleep and recovery. I’m not obsessive, but if my score says “take it easy,” I’ll swap a HIIT class for a walk. Exercise, for me, regulates energy so I can show up as my best self — not to “win the Olympics.”

I focus on protein and fiber as my family’s breakfast chef

After workouts, I’ll grab a high-protein shake if I’m not home yet, then I make breakfast for the family — often prepped egg-and-veg wraps I batch on weekends.

I upped my protein target this year from around 100g to 120g a day and pay more attention to my fiber intake after realizing how deficient most of us are. I use nutritional macros like a guideline, but I only track my meals closely when I need a mental reset.

In the office by 8:30 a.m. — caffeinated and listening

I try to protect my sleep so I can be sharp in the mornings. Another coffee or two doesn’t hurt.

At the office, the “glue” is my longtime assistant, Katie. If her usually calm demeanor shifts, I pay attention: it often signals something brewing that hasn’t reached me yet. She’s a pulse check on culture and fit, and I’m often bouncing ideas off of her throughout the day.

I spend a lot of time in our restaurants and in meetings with my team to check in on our projects. Recently, I’ve been focused on our market “glow-ups,” where we’re updating signage, patios, lighting, and visibility at restaurants across the country, tailoring our approach to each city instead of having one-size-fits-all storefronts.

A quick lunch around noon, then more meetings

Lunch is quick — typically a big salad with protein, if I’m not sampling new menu items in our test kitchen.

Then I spend the afternoon in working sessions with ops, design, and marketing. Sometimes, that means being in front of the camera to film content for our social media channels, or it can involve a brainstorming session with our innovation team to develop new seasonal menu items.

I look for inspiration everywhere

My early career in consulting trained me to seek ideas everywhere, so I curate my own inspiration stream:

• Whenever a restaurant leader peer is on a podcast, I listen to understand how others think about the industry.
• I cycle through podcasts from “The Daily” and Esther Perel, as well as the occasional murder-mystery series for “mind candy.”
• You can usually find me reading business books, such as “Unreasonable Hospitality” and “No Rules Rules.”
• I also play Wordle, a tiny daily puzzle that resets my brain.

I’m always listening for questions we’re not being asked — like how people feel working for me, or how to become a Gen Z “first-choice” employer — and using the answers to build momentum in our business.

I finish work around 5 p.m.

Evenings are for my teenage kids and, ideally, a home-cooked meal.

My husband is the dinner MVP; he’s truly an exceptional home cook, so evenings are his domain. I’m grateful to be delightfully surprised by whatever he’s making.

I don’t micromanage dinner — prioritizing balance across the day lets me enjoy whatever’s on the table. If I need a sweet finish, I’m a sucker for great ice cream.

On weekends, I try to avoid being available for work. That’s my family’s time, and protecting it helps me show up as my best self at the office.

I try to be in bed by 9 p.m.

I skim my sleep trends from my Oura Ring, maybe read some fiction (strong female leads are my jam), and aim to be in bed by 9.

Protecting sleep is non-negotiable. I can power through a day or two short on rest, but beyond that, my patience and mental capacity dip — and my team deserves the best version of me.

• Russia’s medium-sized strike drones are flying smaller drones into battle, Ukrainian soldiers say.
• The fixed-wing “Molniya” drones can carry one or two first-person-view (FPV) quadcopters.
• The tactic extends the reach of Russia’s FPV drones.

Russia has been using its medium-sized drones to fly smaller drones packed with explosives into combat, extending their range and creating deadly new problems for Ukrainian forces.

Ukrainian soldiers who described the tactic to Business Insider said that Moscow uses its fixed-wing Molniya (“lightning” in Russian) drones to carry small first-person-view (FPV) drones; these are typically the quadcopters that have become a dominant presence on the battlefield.

The tactic, while not a new phenomenon, has become a growing concern for Ukrainian forces because it enables the FPVs to operate and strike at greater depths. The war has featured other types of mothership-style drone carriers, but Russia only recently started using the Molinya for this purpose, soldiers said.

A soldier in the 4th Ranger Regiment, a Ukrainian special operations unit, said that the inexpensive Molniya drones act as “an aircraft carrier,” bringing one or two FPVs into battle, significantly extending their reach.

The Molniya can also carry an explosive payload, allowing it to function as both a mothership and a strike drone, said the operator, who could only be identified by his call sign Khyzhak (“Predator” in Ukrainian) for security reasons.

After the Molniya releases its onboard FPVs, it can continue flying to strike a target. Russia has sometimes even put anti-tank mines on the drone to increase its explosive potential, Khyzhak said.

“They’re cheap, there’s a lot of them, and so they can use them any time — at any moment — they want,” the soldier added.

Neither Russia’s defense ministry nor its US embassy responded to Business Insider’s request for comment on the tactic.

A Ukrainian drone unit commander operating in the northeast Kharkiv region described the Molniya tactic as a “dispensable relay.” They can often fly for dozens of miles, and the FPVs are remotely piloted after they are dropped off by the mothership.

Russia began using this tactic in the Kharkiv region several weeks ago, taking advantage of the shifting front lines, the commander said, speaking on the condition of anonymity due to security concerns.

Another Ukrainian soldier said he suspects Russia does not have many of these Molniya drones and described the threat as still being somewhat “experimental.”

The soldier, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Ukraine has similar mothership-style drones that can carry three or even four smaller ones. He declined to detail how widespread their use is, citing operational security concerns.

Ukraine has previously disclosed the use of naval drones to carry FPVs in the Black Sea, with the smaller quadcopter drones taking off from the mothership to attack a Russian-held oil platform.

The introduction of the FPV-carrying Molniyas marks another instance of battlefield innovation, highlighting how drones continue to play an increasingly dominant role in the ongoing conflict.

“War changes. I’m not saying every day, but every year for sure, every half of the year. They’re trying new tactics all the time. We are doing the same,” Khyzhak said.

Both Ukraine and Russia are constantly trying to outsmart the other in what officials have described as a cat-and-mouse game to field new warfare technology before the other side develops a workable countermeasure.

New warfighting technologies often grants one side an advantage for only a limited window, maybe only a few months before the other side figures out how to respond, Lt. Col. Yurii Myronenko, Ukraine’s deputy minister of defense for innovation and a former drone unit commander, told Business Insider recently.

Khyzhak said that Russia is modifying its drones to make them more deadly. He added that “they are improving their weapons — their equipment — nonstop, 24/7, every day.”

Earlier this month, Ukraine’s defense ministry published combat footage showing interceptor drones — one of Kyiv’s newest air defense tools — taking out a handful of Molniyas above the battlefield. It’s unclear if they have stopped any of the motherships carrying FPVs.