Forktales

Fransmart is a global leader in franchise development. For over 20 years, they’ve excelled at turning emerging concepts into national and global brands. Led by company founder Dan Rowe, Fransmart is known throughout the franchising community for spotting and growing brands like Five Guys Burgers & Fries and Qdoba Mexican Grill, from single unit businesses to the powerhouse chains they are today.

Fransmart has built restaurants in all of the top 150 media markets in North America.

Fransmart’s success stories include Five Guys, Qdoba Mexican Grill and Halal Guys – a franchise that started from a success food cart in New York City. Today, Halal Guys is the most successful Middle Eastern restaurant in America.

Dan’s success stems from his knowledge of each market and the potential franchisees in each market. With that knowledge, he can often predict whether a restaurant will find franchisees and be successful.

The biggest mistake a lot of franchisees make is picking the wrong brand to invest in. Another mistake franchisees make is not following the system put in place by the brand they’re investing in.

QUOTES

“A good franchisee wants to follow somebody else’s system. A bad franchisee buys a franchise and tries to do everything different.” (Dan)

“In every market, we know where the best operators are, we know where the best intersections are, where the best projects are, the best architects, contractors, food distributors, so we just sort of developed this knack for understanding the best way to do everything in these markets.” (Dan)

“I want to be relentless about getting the right site (for a new restaurant). For any concept, there’s 10 or 15 or 20 potential sites. But there’s really only three or four first sites. You have to be very careful when you’re building a brand in a brand new market. There’s something very strategic about using real estate and real estate’s role in marketing.” (Dan)

“You have to be really good at knowing exactly where your bullseye’s are and coming up with some logic around what order you should be growing.” (Dan)

“You have staff for the sales you want and you have to staff for the company you’re trying to build.” (Dan)

“I’ve never seen a concept that I can’t figure out how to drive sales and lower costs.” (Dan)

TRANSCRIPT

00:00.00

vigorbranding

Hello if you’re a restaurant looking to become an an international restaurant chain or if you’re um, you know I’m gonna start over I’m sorry it’s kind of fumble that all just yeah, hello if you’re a restaurant looking to become an international restaurant chain or if you’re an entrepreneur who wants to own a franchise today’s episode is for you. My guest is Dan Rowe he’s the Ceo and founder of fransmart and he takes emerging restaurant concepts and turns them into national and international franchises. He’s been called the chainmakerr and we’re gonna talk to him today about his process. Dan. Thank you so much for joining us.

00:32.74

dan_fransmart_com

Um, yeah, thanks, thanks for having me.

00:36.52

vigorbranding

Well let’s just jump right in. Let’s start with Fransmart tell me a little bit about it How you started maybe a little bit about your history and where you got your start.

00:44.96

dan_fransmart_com

sure sure I I started washing dishes and cooking got into technology if id never went to college so barelegged out of high school. So I but I was lucky enough when I was like nineteen eighteen and a half nineteen for about 5 years I got into technology. Worked for a guy that grew software companies made some money and what do I do go right back in the restaurant business I bought a franchise of a bagel bakery and it was a 6 unit bagel chain in Washington d c I lived in California the idea originally was to bring the franchise to California ah, because there’s no bagel shops near me. And I went into business with a buddy mine and his wife and they wanted to move to Denver so we opened up our first franchise in Denver I had negotiated a deal I said hey if we’re successful with this I want to also do your franchising and because I’m proving you outside of Dc where all your stores are. We were very successful and I was 23 I think he was 25 enty five or 26 and we were more successful than most of the stores that they had in Dc so we did their franchise development and we grew them from 6 stores to around 200 in about 4 years sold the company.

01:51.64

vigorbranding

Wow.

01:57.90

dan_fransmart_com

1 of my shops in Denver was across from the first Chipotle we tried to get him to franchise. He wasn’t interest in he did just fine without us but somebody who copied him was ah Kudoba Kudoba mexican so we approached Kudoba we got involved with Kedoba when they were only open a couple months.

01:59.35

vigorbranding

I.

02:13.86

dan_fransmart_com

Helped him put together the whole franchise program grew that to think about 100 open and few hundred in development sold that to Jack in the box and at that point I had grown 2 companies at a time as individual, you know, like 2 different companies at a time under 2 different companies. And then I said it was 2000. Everything was a.com back then and I said you know what I’m going to I’m going to start a new company instead of growing one brand at a time I’m going to grow a portfolio at a time so we started fransmart.

02:45.15

vigorbranding

That’s brilliant Now you know, ah and talking with you I’ve learned a couple things number one I did 2 work in the restaurant first and I believe wholeheartedly that everyone should start out working a restaurant. You’ve got to take orders. You’ve got to get things Done. You have to execute you have to talk to people by and large. You have to get to know how to handle problems I mean there’s a whole lot of education that happens in a restaurant doesn’t it. The other thing I It’s very humbling. Ah, that’s right, That’s absolutely right? The other thing I will say is I also did not.

03:04.41

dan_fransmart_com

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s It’s also humiliating and it’s humbling and it’s ah it’s good. It’s good to see why you should treat people better.

03:17.44

vigorbranding

Go to college I I was a creative guy so I just like thought well hell I’m really smart at doing these big ideas and creating stuff I don’t need to go school so I didn’t and you know at the end of the day. It’s it’s kind of funny because 1 time my daughter was asked in school like hey do your parents ever have any sayings you know like you know what? what are they known for saying and.

03:23.23

dan_fransmart_com

Yeah.

03:34.41

vigorbranding

My my daughter raised your hands and my dad said C students run the world so that was me I was just like yeah an underachiever. But just I worked really hard. So anyway, um so look with frasmar. Essentially you take this guesswork out of franchising right? You’re connecting entrepreneurs.

03:36.80

dan_fransmart_com

Yeah.

03:51.90

vigorbranding

Ah, the one to get into the restaurant ownership business with emerging restaurants and I mean so you’re’re, you’re finding great ideas or you have these great ideas. You’re finding people that that are business people and maybe good operators but also teaching them how to operate um you know So what? at the end of the day. What makes a good franchisee.

04:05.99

dan_fransmart_com

A good franchisee wants to follow somebody else’s system a bad franchisee buys a franchise and then tries to do everything different or or argues with the the company. But yeah I mean franspart’s main business were franchise development company. We have big picture vision. So like with 5 guys. You know we didn’t invent burgers. We just saw a micro niche of you know, fresh burgers and nobody really owned that segment we saw burger King Wendy’s Mcdonald’s but nobody was really doing high quality. Um chefy food and. So 5 guys was in Dc they were near us. They won these awards all the time for best burgers. They had a really really good hamburger. It was more expensive than the other guys. Whatever but they had 4 units and I just said you know what? I’ve already grown you know mexican chain a bagel chain all across the country There’s nobody else doing this in any other market around the country and so our playbook is basically become we. We’ve built restaurants and all the top hundred and fifty biggest media markets in North america so New York’s the biggest something around Savannah Georgia or something like that is somewhere around one fifty

05:12.95

vigorbranding

Me.

05:20.00

dan_fransmart_com

And in in every market we know who the best operators are we know where the best intersections are the best projects are the best architects contractors food distributors and so we’ve just sort of developed this knack for understanding the best known way to do everything in every one of these markets and so yeah, we did it with 5 guys. We. You know, wound up growing those guys I think we grew them from 6 4 4 locations to about 100 open a few hundred in development we sold. They’re like 2000 stores. Um, we did with halal guys. So here’s another thing like my premise was gosh. There’s a billion and a half muslims in the world. And when I go to Chipotle or Starbucks I’d ask my wife like do you know any muslim actors or singers or apparel companies or tech companies or car companies or food brands. There’s a no no no no no I’m like well wait a minute There’s a the biggest demographic population in the world and there’s no brand.

06:10.71

vigorbranding

A.

06:16.28

dan_fransmart_com

Through his company, HospiVation, Jason coaches restaurant executives how to make their goals real in the restaurant and teaches restaurant managers how to transform their patterns of management to improve their hospitality leadership.

HospiVation helps restaurants through coaching, speeches, workshops and books. They try to meet managers where they are and dive deep in the restaurant’s team to help them build better teams.

Jason has wanted to work in the restaurant industry since a very young age and got his first job as a restaurant dishwasher at the age of 15. He’s worked for 20 different restaurant brands during his career.

One of the biggest mistakes restaurant managers make when it comes to leadership is trying to do everything by themselves and not learning to delegate.

It’s important for managers to understand a restaurant’s KPIs, but it’s also important for EVERY member of the team to understand the KPIs and how success is measured.

In an effective meeting, the meeting organizer and leader should talk 20 percent of the time and the rest of the attendees should talk 80 percent of the time.

QUOTES

“I came in through the side door. I started out washing dishes at a very young age. My mother didn’t even know I got a job.” (Jason)

“I’ve worked for 20 different restaurant brands and six of the top 100 brands in the U.S. This has given me the ability to see the Mona Lisa painted 20 different ways. All of those learnings helped to shape my company, HospiVation.” (Jason)

“Ask any social media manager. It’s very hard to get people to follow you and it’s even hard to keep them.” (Jason)

“It’s not just managing, leading and coaching – it’s knowing the difference between the three. We use managing more than anything else in our day as a hospitality leader. Leadership is different. Leadership is understanding the overarching items about the industry and where to move the brand next.” (Jason)

“Coaching is the mastery of small groups and one-on-ones. Coaching is you creating a space of 30 minutes to listen to your team.” (Jason)

“When it comes to mastering your meetings, you have to understand that if you aren’t sitting down to make a decision, you probably shouldn’t be there.” (Jason)

“You should never stop training, even when someone puts in a notice (and are departing soon).” (Jason)

TRANSCRIPT

00:00.00

vigorbranding

Hello everybody today’s guest is Jason Brooks he’s a motivational speaker an expert in restaurant management and the author of the book every leader needs followers 10 keys to transform restaurant managers into hospitality leaders Jason. Thanks so much for being here. Um, I’d love to start off with just you talking a little bit about your past like some of the places you’ve been and some of the things you’ve done.

00:26.34

Jason Brooks

Thank you Michael ah, it’s a pleasure being on forktails in amazing podcast. Your listeners are full First they know their business. They know what they’re talking about so I am honored. Um, you know my past is like many. Pasts of coaches of speakers meaning that I came in through the side door and and I started out washing dishes very young age 15 first job. My my mother didn’t even know that I got a job. Ah, she just came home one day after three weeks of working and there were a lot more groceries in the fridge than when she went to work and she’s like Jason where did all this food come from and like mom I promise I didn’t do anything bad I got a child. But cooking has been something that has stuck with me even up to this day I still find different recipes. You could find me on the weekends breaking out the smoker I have a traeger whether it’s brisket or some chicken or some ribs and. I am getting down but I’ve been in this business I’ve been in this industry for thirty plus years and I’m known as what some may call a restaurant lifer. Um, even though I’m a restaurant lifer I had some odd jobs.

01:53.21

Jason Brooks

In between here and there because people that get in the restaurant business. They don’t typically wake up at the age of 7 and say I want to work in restaurants. You know they actually say I want to be a fireman or I want to be this? Um, so there was a time there that although I was good. In the restaurant business I fought it and I found that most people fight being in this business at some point because they think it’s trying to change them. They think that it’s trying to change themselves from being authentic. And it takes having that right mentor that right person that you lean on or your spouse or friend saying what are you doing you are you are good at this. You need to do this or you to then say? Okay I’m going to now truly invest my time in this. Um, but I’ve worked for 20 different restaurant brands 6 of the top 100 brands in the us and I always say this has given me the ability to view the Mona Lisa painted 20 different ways. Some of them are some amazing pieces of art. Some of them are just pieces but all of these learnings from all these brands help to shape my company called hospitalation which is hospitality and motivation and is putting that motivation back into hospitality.

03:23.31

vigorbranding

Fantastic. That’s great. Ah, and I you know I got to see some of your podcasts. They were wonderful and your energy is contagious I Love it. Absolutely love it. Um, so talk we’re gonna talk about your book. But let’s talk about hospiation a little bit I mean talk about what it does What you’ve been doing with it and you know give us some some background there.

03:27.43

Jason Brooks

Are.

03:42.45

Jason Brooks

Um, probation was made to help manage lead and coach restaurant tours executives back to some of the foundations that may have been lost, especially within the last four years there’s been some things lost within the skill set. Of our teams and also some some of of the things that as owners we need to recognize more of what our teams are missing to help close that gap so hospitalation helps to close the gap between. Customer or guest expectations and the operator or owner execution and we do this through coaching through speeches through workshops through books. Um, we try to meet. The owner meet the manager where they are and give those pieces and leave everything on the table I mean leave it all on field. There are no secrets. It’s just being able to help dive deeper into that team or into that person. To find out what really drove them to be successful and then help double down on those tactics on those skillsets for them to build better teams around them.

05:01.89

vigorbranding

Very good. Um I mean like you know I look at I mean we we employ a lot of folks here in our company and probably 100 and some employees and you know different generations come in and I’ve been doing this for a really long time and you know I see different types of sort of attitudes and stuff and. You know we we we all lived through the whole covid thing and the restaurants I mean getting back and coming back I mean you you have in here about the motivation. Do. Do you feel like restaurants and the hospitality industry in general has lost its motivation. Are you feeling that that that they need that maybe ah, an infusion of ah of motivation.

05:38.37

Jason Brooks

Um, I mean it is motivation. It’s also a understanding of finding out and just remembering what made you successful before.. For example, there’s a lot of times whenever. Let’s let’s go through the whole ranks when a cook shifts into a manager role. What made them successful as a cook they tend to leave that behind as a manager or a manager into a multi-unit manager. Whenever you are a manager you’re running your own restaurant. Um, you tend to use ah a checklist you tend to create mini gms you tend to have all these things in place because there’s so much on your plate. That you need reminders to help make sure that you cover all the bases that you need to cover and then all of a sudden when they shift into a multi unit manager they tend to shoot from the hip. They don’t have any checklist. They don’t walk into the building studying anything about that business whenever they walk in if they’re running multiple restaurants same thing as owners we think that we are exuding some of the same things that made us successful.

06:56.88

Jason Brooks

But we have to revisit. What is it exactly that made us successful within our last role and now how do we bring that into the next and that’s what that’s that motivation that is missing. We can’t leave things behind. We have to bring them with us.

07:14.34

vigorbranding

Good. So okay, let’s talk about your book I see it behind you there leadership every leader needs followers 10 keys to transform restaurant managers into hospitality leaders. Um, it’s not easy to get people to follow. You is it as a leader.

07:17.99

Jason Brooks

Um, I Yes, um.

07:26.71

Jason Brooks

No no, ask any social media manager it is it. It’s it’s very hard to get them to follow you and it’s even harder to keep them and that’s where that’s where some of the 10 keys. Covers is not only how do you build a followship and you have to be a wonderful follower yourself. But then how do you keep that as well.

07:54.33

vigorbranding

Very good. So what? What? What do you think are the biggest mistakes the restaurant managers are making when it comes to being an effective leader.

08:02.48

Jason Brooks

Hands down doing it by yourself I’ve seen it too many times we come in as a manager and we think that the things again the things I used to do I can just do it and then I’ll do it by myself. I don’t have trust and wheneve

Thanx is a leading loyalty and guest engagement platform for restaurants. The company, founded by Zach Goldstein in 2011, helps businesses embrace digital purchasing, capture greater customer data, and take action on that information to personalize guest engagement.

Thanx builds digital UX – mobile apps and web ordering experience – that help restaurants differentiate themselves. Thanx also offers dynamic self-service loyalty programs that help restaurants break free from cookie cutter loyalty programs.

Before joining Thanx, Emily was a business intelligence consultant.

Restaurants face many challenges when it comes to data, including not having resources to analyze and take action on data available to them. They also don’t have a good way to centralize the data and make it useful. Restaurants also struggle to capture enough data.

Many loyalty programs fail to capture enough data because the programs are difficult to sign up for (often requiring an app) and they make customers jump through hoops to use the app or program.

Thanx loyalty programs think outside the “Spend X, Get Y” box to offer unique loyalty programs that don’t rely on discounts. That includes offers of special food items or LTOs to loyalty members or all day happy hour for loyalty members.

QUOTES

“There’s problems associated with getting data and then there’s the problem of doing something with the data (after you get it) that’s meaningful to the business.” (Emily)

“Restaurants generally don’t have the resources in house to help them make sense of the data that they have.” (Emily)

“Far and away the most common challenge (for restaurants) is that they’re not capturing enough data.” (Emily)

“Most revenue is still flowing through in-store channels. This is where loyalty comes in.” (Emily)

“Loyalty is the only proven mechanism for broadly capturing data and driving repeat purchasing from it. And yet, most loyalty programs don’t capture enough data.” (Emily)

“There are a few restaurants doing loyalty really well. For the rest of restaurants, those loyalty programs are all very similar ‘Spend X, Get Y’ programs. Thanx allows you to build unique, differentiated, bespoke loyalty programs.” (Emily)

“Not only do non-discount programs work better, they also cost less.” (Emily)

“If you look at why restaurants aren’t personalizing (programs), most of the time it’s not because people think it’s not important or it’s not going to drive results. It’s because it’s really hard to do.” (Emily)

TRANSCRIPT

00:00.00

vigorbranding

Hello Today’s guest is someone who knows a lot about data and loyalty programs which are two extremely important topics for restaurants and any brand for that matter. Our guest is Emily rugabier and she is the Vp of marketing for thanks with an x. So thanks for joining us Emily Rut Gaber I’m sorry I practiced it three times. So.

00:19.99

Emily

Yeah, happy to be here and you almost got it rugeber very close. Um.

00:27.57

Emily

So um, yeah, very happy to be here. Thank you so much for having me. Thanks is a guest engagement and retention platform for restaurants. Ah so that’s kind of a mouthful so I’ll tell you what that means? um. We build digital ux so we build mobile apps and web ordering experiences that help restaurants sort of differentiate themselves their first -party ordering from their third parties as I’m sure this audience knows all too. Well, the third -party platforms are higher margin. They don’t get a lot of data shared with them about the customers. And they’re actually being served ads potentially from competitors on that platform and so there’s a lot of reason to want to have your customers order directly which we help brands do we also offer really dynamic self-service loyalty programs that help restaurants sort of bake. Break free from these cookie cutter programs. You know that they launch and then they never change and many of them don’t drive measurable results and then lastly we’re a complete crm and marketing automation platform really sort of differentiated in terms of ease of use. So. There’s a lot of platforms like ours on the market. We really focus on trying to make marketing as easy as possible. We know that every single restaurant that I talk to when I talk to their marketing team. They say they’re bandwidth constrained and they sort of laugh when I talk about this because it’s so true.

01:51.36

Emily

And they don’t have time to waste on the mechanics of creating campaigns. They want to do personalized marketing but they want to do it in a way that’s really easy so that they can get it done and prioritize it.

01:59.89

vigorbranding

very cool. very cool so okay so let’s talk data last year nation’s restaurant news said customer data is the Holy Grail of restaurant success and you know we have a data analytics company. We know that mining data is super important. We can learn everything that there is to know and.

02:06.30

Emily

Yep.

02:18.30

vigorbranding

Allows us to make great decisions. So the same article reveal that 70% of restaurant operators don’t feel like they’re properly optimizing customer data knowing important how important data is why aren’t more restaurants making more use of it.

02:32.49

Emily

Yeah, and just a little bit about me I sort of mentioned to this to you before we were talking before I joined. Thanks I actually worked as a business intelligence consultant I was advising some of the largest enterprises I worked with nestle I worked with sap I worked with Target Virgin America and um. This is true, not just of restaurants. This is true with many many businesses. It’s certainly not a unique problem that restaurants have but the way I like to think about this because it’s such a large sort of meaty topic is to break it into 2 categories of problems. There’s the problems associated with getting data in and then there’s the problems associated with.

03:09.23

vigorbranding

Here.

03:09.42

Emily

Doing something with that data that is meaningful to the business so sort of breaking it down in that way and just thinking about getting data in there’s ah you know a few common challenges that we see I think restaurants generally they don’t have the resources in-house to help them make sense of the data that they have. A lot of times they don’t have the technology as well. In the case where they do have some data a lot of times the data really lives in Silos and so they don’t have a good way to centralize it and sort of make sense of it and make it usable for their internal teams and the last challenge which I think is by far and away the most common challenge. Is that they’re just not capturing enough data and this you sort of have to break it down into the online aspects and the in-store aspects I think restaurants have gotten better at the online piece just in light of the fact that they’re transacting more of their business online. Although there’s. Ah, huge amount of room for improvement with online and then there’s the in-store piece I think most revenue is still flowing through in-store channels and so um, this is where loyalty comes in right? There’s ah. Ah, variety of other avenues for capturing Data. You know you hear about wi-fi marketing you hear about reservations. For example, Loyalty is really the only proven mechanism for broadly capturing data and driving repeat purchasing from it. Um, and yet most loyalty programs.

04:23.99

vigorbranding

Man.

04:40.37

Emily

Don’t capture a lot of data and and that’s because I mean there’s ah, there’s a couple different reasons but that’s in large part because they make guests really jump through hoops in order to engage with the program. It’s difficult to sign up. You know you have to download a mobile app How many mobile apps. Do you have on your phone.

04:40.45

vigorbranding

And.

04:58.66

Emily

Ah, maybe you have 6 or 7 but there’s a lot more restaurants than that so they force you to download a mobile app you have to show a qr code at the register in order to earn progress and you’ve got a line of 10 people who are frustrated at you because you can’t get internet on your phone.

05:18.51

Emily

They make it really really hard. This is an area where Thanks is really differentiated.

05:22.20

vigorbranding

We talk about a little bit more about Thanks how how is yours different. How does it look feel how how is it easier to use.

05:31.97

Emily

Um, yes, that’s obviously a really big question the way I like to think about it is there’s sort of 4 different categories where we’re differentiated. So like I mentioned before loyalty tends to be pretty one size fits all so you know. As a consumer going to restaurants. You know you obviously have engaged with the programs. There’s a few really sort of um, there’s a few restaurants that are doing this really really? Well right? We all know the Starbucks and the chipotles and the dominoes who are doing this really well. But for the rest of. Restaurants by and large those loyalty programs are all pretty similar spend x get y um, and ah, what thanks does differently on this dimension is we allow you to build really unique differentiated bespoke Loyalty Programs so that means going outside the structure of like a spend x get y you can do really cool things that don’t rely on discounts. For example, you can offer. Ah you know a special food item. Maybe an lto some throwback from.

06:39.86

vigorbranding

Sure.

06:42.19

Emily

Ah, the past that worked really well you can offer that just to your loyalty members for a short

Duck Donuts is an American doughnut shop chain based in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. Duck Donuts was founded in 2006 in Duck, North Carolina, by Russ DiGilio and Robin Griffith, and has since expanded to over 100 locations in the United States.

Duck Donuts is known for its made-to-order donuts in a variety of unique flavors. It recently opened a location in Thailand.

Managing growth is something that Duck Donuts (and many franchises) pays careful attention to. The training program for franchisees includes an emphasis on consistent branding and quality.

Duck Donuts franchisees typically own just a few locations and often work on a daily basis in the locations they own.

The custom, made-to-order model is what differentiates Duck Donuts from its competitors.

Duck Donuts is testing kiosks in stores and grab-and-go opportunities for customers who might not want to wait for donuts.

QUOTES

“(Managing growth) is challenging. We try to set franchisees up for success in the beginning from a training standpoint and teaching them how we do things.” (Betsy)

“We have smaller franchisees. A lot of them have two or three locations and come from different backgrounds.” (Betsy)

“What really makes a franchisee successful is someone who has a small business mentality. They’re accountable for their success or failure and we’ll give them all the tools and resources they need to succeed.” (Betsy)

“It’s a lot of work and it’s constant. Franchisees have to be in the store and know what’s going on. Having that ability to work ON the business and not just IN the business is important.” (Betsy)

“We do try to make (the ordering process) easier because it can be overwhelming for some people. The ability is still there if they want to customize their donut, but if they don’t want to think about it and they want 12 suggestions, here you go, here’s a couple to pick from.” (Betsy)

“We’re in growth mode. We opened 32 shops last year and we’ll open 45 this year.” (Betsty)

“Donuts are happiness and the world needs more happiness.” (Michael)

TRANSCRIPT

00:00.00

vigorbranding

Great hello I’m joined today by someone I’ve always wanted to have on this show. Betsy ham is our guest. She’s the Ceo of duck donuts and it’s one of the fastest growing donut franchises in the nation betsy. Thanks for joining us.

00:12.88

Betsy Hamm

Thank you so much for having me.

00:17.00

vigorbranding

So I want to hear all about your story but the duck story. It’s it’s amazing to me and and kind of maybe fortuitous. The the idea I guess actually grew up in my neighborhood. My neighbor Russ was the is the founder and ah.

00:30.67

Betsy Hamm

Yep.

00:31.37

vigorbranding

If you would tell us the story. You know how it comes from a little neighborhood and in in Pennsylvania and turns into this international and international business. What was the idea behind it how to come come about.

00:38.78

Betsy Hamm

Sure so it’s crazy. It really didn’t stem out of your neighborhood right? Um, so as you mentioned Russ who’s the founder of rused gilio um had a beach house in the outer banks and these to go down there and you know one night they were sitting around. He emits drinking some wine and raminiscing about these warm donuts that they used to get and the boardwalk is kids growing up. And at the time in 2007 outer banks was um, pretty much a little sleepy town. There wasn’t really even any donut shops that were there. Um, so what started out as a whim when they the next day decided like hey this really has some legs. Let’s create a donut concept. Um, and open it here in the outer banks and Russ is a serial entrepreneur but did not have any food and beverage experience so reached out to one of his friends who helped put together the concept of duck donuts. So the first 2 shops opened in duck and Kitty Hawk ah North Carolina hence the name duck. Um, and it took a few years to catch on. But after about the third season because of course it’s very seasonal location and in the outer banks. It really took off and the people who came there every year just continued to create this cult like following for the brand. And people were asking him to you know, open up in my hometown send me donuts in the mail like I want these donuts more than once a year when I go on vacation. So Russ realized that there was this really huge opportunity that he couldn’t miss and decided to start a franchising company. So.

02:01.74

Betsy Hamm

Um, they sold their first franchise in 2013 in Williamsburg Virginia um and now fast forward to 20024 where we have about 150 shops in the United States in 22 or 24 states actually and then we’re also in 6 countries outside the us which has been crazy. So. Um I had the opportunity. Actually we opened in Thailand a few months ago and Russ came along with me for the opening and I said did you ever imagine you would be in Thailand listening to people speak thai talking about Doc Donance being so excited for this concept that just started as something fun. Um, for you to do it and you know he’s so humble about it and he’s just like absolutely not He’s like I had no idea something that started as like a fun side project in the ader banks would literally be um, you know sprinkling happiness across the globe and it’s pretty crazy.

02:52.77

vigorbranding

It’s awesome I mean and you obviously stay close to the branding everything you guys do which I personally truly respect and appreciate I think that’s fantastic. Talk about your journey your your duck donut journey. What did you start out and how did you come about this this ah duck opportunity.

03:07.79

Betsy Hamm

Sure so I spent the first really half I guess of my career at her. She entertainment resorts in marketing so various marketing roles for the sweetest place on earth which of course was a really amazing job. But it’s really always kept um my ear out there for if there was any opportunities that came up that made sense. And a friend of mine had said duck donuts is opening their corporate headquarters here in the Harrisburg area where where I live in Pennsylvania they want someone to come in and build their marketing team and to be honest I had never even heard of duck donuts I had never been to the outer banks. Um, but I had texted a few of my girlfriends who did go every year I said hey the duck donuts.

03:34.80

vigorbranding

He soon.

03:42.87

Betsy Hamm

Place in the outer banks like they’re looking for a marketing person and they both were so emphatic about the fact that I had to take this interview like it’s the best thing ever that would be the most amazing dream job and I’m like wow these ladies are so excited about a Doda concept. Um, so with that excitement I definitely had to take the interview and and came in and met with ah Russ who was the Ceo at the time and of course the founder and the Ceo and you know Russ painted this picture of here’s this brand that people who know it love it and we want to make it at the time we were sick into the us um a national a national brand. Um, so having that opportunity as a marketing person to come in and you know there’s this love and loyalty for this brand but we have to make it more sophisticated. Um, of course it was very mom and pop when it started out. Um so having the opportunity to come in and start from scratch of. You know, logos and and brand voice and style and and I remember talking to the marketing person who was here at the time like why are we not posting pictures on social of donuts like we keep using these illustrated donuts and there’s a couple ducks going on. Um and she said well we don’t have any pictures of donuts I was like oh.

04:34.70

vigorbranding

Um, no.

04:45.90

vigorbranding

So right? yeah.

04:49.27

Betsy Hamm

So you know had this opportunity to kind of start at the base of the foundation and really help take this brand and make it more sophisticated and elevated as we’ve continued to grow. So um, started with a company seven years ago in a marketing capacity and probably about a year and a half after I was here. Ah Russ said you know I think you should take on more. Um, and getting ended up getting promoted to co o which you know they don’t usually let marketing people in charge of operations but um manage to yeah hey worked da um, so did the c o roll for a few years and then um is almost three years ago which is crazy.

05:15.61

vigorbranding

For good reason by the way for very good reason. Ah.

05:26.50

Betsy Hamm

Ah, you know Russ was always very clear that at some point he’s going to take this company as far as he could when need to bring in um, some additional expertise additional cash. Um, so he sold the company to a private equity group in April of 2021 um and at that time is then you know when I when I was promoted to Ceo so it’s been. It’s been a wild journey and something I would have never.

05:40.91

vigorbranding

Um, it’s awesome. It.

05:46.70

Betsy Hamm

Anticipated you know 8 ten years ago when I had never had even heard of the brand let alone to be to be a Ceo.

05:52.64

vigorbranding

It’s it’s amazing and and congratulations. It’s awesome I mean I guess I can I can I can understand certainly don’t have a global business but I started out as ah, just a marketing guy. A creative guy started my own business and now I’m Ceo and it’s sort of like.

05:59.95

Betsy Hamm

So.

06:07.28

vigorbranding

It’s amazing what you did then and who you were then and what you do now I mean talk a little bit about that

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Broaster Company is an American foodservice equipment manufacturer headquartered in Beloit, Wisconsin. The company is the leader in providing high quality pressure fryers and branded food service programs for over 65 years.

“Broasting” is a unique cooking method developed in 1954 when Broaster’s inventor and founder L.A.M. Phalen combined the principles of a pressure cooker and a deep fryer into one commercial cooking appliance. The results – in quality, flavor and cooking speed – were revolutionary.

Only restaurants and food service providers that are licensed to use genuine Broaster Company equipment can offer “broasted chicken” on menus. Protecting that trademark and licensing is important to the Broaster Chicken team.

In many restaurants, broasted chicken is a champion menu item and sold to restaurants as a featured menu item.

Broaster Company has been a global business for as long as the company has been incorporated. The company has a distributor in the Middle East for the past 60 years.

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QUOTES

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“If you were to take the Dakotas over to Ohio, go down probably to Kentucky – that is where the Broaster market is. As people move outside the midwest, that’s how the name spreads.” (Jay)

“If you want to say that you’re serving broaster chicken, it starts with the marinades and coatings, it uses the frier and you have to use the process that we dictate to call it genuine broaster chicken.” (Jay)

“We have ‘broaster,’ ‘broasted,’ ‘genuine broaster chicken’ and anything around the name broast, broaster, et cetera has been trademarked by the Broaster Company.” (Jay)

“We get more calls from consumers (about trademark violations) than we do from restaurants or distributors. Our consumers are our biggest police for monitoring our brand.” (Jay)

“I’ve heard of people pressure frying Twinkies, hot dogs, et cetera. You can almost do anything. […] Around the holiday season, one of the favorites is turkey.” (Jay)

TRANSCRIPT

00:01.14

vigorbranding

Fantastic hello hey today I am joined by someone I’ve known for ah personally for a long time. His name is Jay Cira and he is the Ceo of broster company Jay say hello and tell us a little bit about yourself.

00:14.42

Jay Cipra

Hey, how are you Mike how you doing um, first of all, thanks for the opportunity one whenever I get a chance to spend some time with you. It’s exciting but also the opportunity to talk about broster is great. So thanks for the opportunity and inviting me on your show here. Um. Groster company. So I’ll tell you a little bit about myself I’ve been with grocester company for 19 years now so long time can never imagine that I was going to be part of an organization this long but it’s it’s been awesome and it’s been awesome run and looking forward to another 20 years or so so it’s ah the broster company. Is actually a very interesting company and something that you know you think of a you know small business within the us. You know you think it’s fairly simple but it’s a little bit more complex than a lot of people think and that’s because we do a lot of different things. Um, broster company started back in 1954 when it was first organized and the way we got. Our started is ah there was a gentleman by the name of Lewis Phelan and Lewis Phelan was basically an inventor turned businessman and he worked for companies inventing products such as Monsanto. Good year. He worked as part of the Panama canal project et cetera and some pretty cool things. Um, but back in the 20 s he found himself running the Taylor company I think everybody here probably has heard of the Taylor company. The softa of ice cream machines that you see at most fast food restaurants et cetera. But.

01:37.99

vigorbranding

Um, and hope.

01:41.93

Jay Cipra

He ran that organization for several years and actually from there also started something I want to say it’s like Zesto zestomatic or something like that which is another custard machine but he started that and it ended up turning into a a franchise drive-in so anyways, with that. In 9052 53 he was in the midwest and anybody who’s in knows in the midwest especially Wisconsin Minnesota Iowa Indiana it is su

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TEAM Schostak Family Restaurants is based in Livonia, Michigan and has a portfolio of 150 casual dining, family dining, fast casual, and quick service restaurants throughout Michigan, TEAM Schostak Family Restaurants (TSFR) include Applebee’s, Olga’s Kitchen, Olga’s Fresh Grille, MOD Pizza and Wendy’s.

Mark is the third generation of a four-generation family business. The company places a lot of emphasis on its road map, which includes its core purpose, its vision (to lead the way), its mission statement and its core values.

TEAM Schostak Family Restaurants core purpose is to create opportunities that make lives better – to life. They create opportunities to make lives better with their employees, their guests and within the communities the company’s restaurants serve.

The culture created by TEAM Schostak Family Restaurants took many years to create, but they bring it to life by modeling it and living it every day.

The COVID pandemic was unprecedented territory for TEAM Schostak Family Restaurants and most restaurants. The first priority for TEAM Schostak Family Restaurants was keeping people employed.

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QUOTES

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“Our core purpose is to create opportunities that make lives better. You have to give people a sense of purpose and they have to recognize that what they’re doing is really important.” (Mark)

“You can do a great job with your people, a great job with your guests, a great job in the community and you can do everything with integrity but you have to achieve results.” (Mark)

“The only way a culture comes to life in a restaurant is you have to model those behaviors. You have to live it. You have to talk about it all the time.” (Mark)

“If you’re constantly going to the outside (to recruit restaurant managers), you’re losing. The only way you’re going to build a culture is you have to internally develop (managers).” (Mark)

“People don’t quit companies, they quit managers.” (Michael)

“We need to be out there. If you’re in the restaurant business, you need to be eating at your competitors’ restaurants. You gotta be out in the field.” (Mark)

TRANSCRIPT

00:00.97

vigorbranding

Great hello everyone I’m excited today dear friend of mine mark showstack is joining us and if you live in the lower peninsula of Michigan ah, you inevitably have eaten at 1 of Mark’s team show stack restaurants. Mark welcome to the show. You want to tell us a little bit about you and your family.

00:17.83

Mark Schostak

Yeah, sure I’m part of a family business It’s a fourth generation family business I’m third generation and in the ah third generation my brothers and I got involved in the restaurant business and. Family’s legacy business is commercial real estate and we celebrated our hundred year anniversary in 2020 so we’re very proud of that.

00:38.72

vigorbranding

Amazing.

00:46.00

vigorbranding

It’s fantastic I mean I know you guys were huge in real estate. It’s just only natural to put restaurants in it. So now you didn’t just put a restaurant in or a couple restaurants in I mean you put it in Applebee’s you have Wendy’s you have August kitchens mod pizza and you know who knows what else you guys are cooking up. You want to talk a little bit about those I mean I think you have ah. Is it a hundred and fifty restaurants

01:03.75

Mark Schostak

Yeah, 150 restaurants who are operating 4 brands today oldest kitchen which is a our proprietary brand. It’s basically a Michigan base company a local iconic brand. We also have applebe’s in the state of Michigan and we have 63 Applebee’s we have 55 Wendy’s and we have 12 my pizzas.

01:29.40

vigorbranding

It’s phenomenal now. So I should do like I know for anybody from Michigan it’s where you live on the hand. So I’d like you to identify every location on the hand of all your restaurants. Ah.

01:37.80

Mark Schostak

Yeah, right be a beat. Be a lot of dots. Um.

01:41.17

vigorbranding

Ah, yeah, it’s an awful lot of dots. it’s it’s insane it’s just amazing. You know and like you guys I know you guys are huge on core values and I know you and I get to talk about how you ma

The International Food & Beverage Technology Association (IFBTA) is a nonprofit trade association that promotes the use of technology within the global food and beverage industries with a specific focus on education, networking, certification, standards, research, and events, while aligning with other industry associations and groups in support of their technology related initiatives.

Rob started his career as a restaurant manager for Bob’s Big Boy and Marriott Hotels. In those roles, he was able to marry his love of operations and restaurants with technology.

Rob is seeing an increase in the use of robotics in back-of-house operations in restaurants, but fewer uses for food delivery to tables.

At CES, Rob sees a sharp increase in electric vehicles as a trend and robotics for use in food preparation and fewer uses of VR.

QUOTES

“The word ‘technology’ is changing. It’s evolving as a definition in hospitality, food service and retail and that’s a very exciting thing to see.” (Rob)

“Certain terms and technology become very popular over time. The way to know what’s popular is to go to a trade show and look above the aisles at the signs. I look at what words are being used. Many years ago it was one-to-one marketing or big data.” (Rob)

“I think the concept of drones may be more of a fad than a trend (in food service). I’m not so hot on drones for delivery, I am very hot on autonomous vehicles and even hotter now that I’m at CES. There is a whole room at CES with electric vehicles and half of those vehicles – probably more than half – are using autonomous driving.” (Rob)

“I believe in robotics. I think we’re going to see it more in the back of the house for food preparation. That’s very clear here at CES with robotic baristas. There’s going to be at the NRF Show next week a robotic pizza maker that’s being used by Walmart. What we don’t see is a ton of robots being used for delivery of food (in restaurants) to tableside.” (Rob)

“I saw a company in Taiwan and they were doing simultaneous translation with earbuds. I’ve seen this before, but it always needed a phone. This one did not need that. So we’re really getting to the point of Star Trek where you put the earbuds in and you’re instantly having conversations with somebody and it’s instantly being translated.” (Rob)

“One of the two things I’ve noticed at CES between last year and this year is a whole pavilion on vehicles. Electric scooters, cars and farming equipment. The other thing I noticed is that the big companies that usually do CES have two booths. I see LG electronics, who I normally see in the main building doing video displays and phones, now has a separate booth in the automotive section where they’re showing their cars.” (Rob)

“I believe you can’t talk about technology. The best way is to show people technology and show them how it’s being used.” (Rob)

TRANSCRIPT

00:01.96

vigorbranding

Hello everyone today's guest is ah a self-described techovvader and someone I've known for a long long time. A good friend. He's Rob Grimes and he's the founder and Ceo of the international food and beverage technology Association Rob also has other businesses. He's tied to he'll talk a little bit about that. And he's obviously not in his house unless he has a casino and slot machines in his house. He's in vegas so obviously ah, you're at the Ceo show welcome to the show Rob ah, let's hear a little bit about you.

00:31.18

Robert Grimes

Thank you? Well listen? Yeah I'm in vegas and unfortunately since we're doing this on a webcam I can't tell you that what goes on in vegas stays in Vegas but I can tell you that I got elevators behind me I got a Starbucks over that way I got slot machines over that way and.

00:43.23

vigorbranding

X.

00:50.50

Robert Grimes

Front desk over here and when I come out to vegas I still get up my normal time which is about four thirty in the morning East Coast so I was up early and so you just never know what you see coming in and out so I cannot be responsible for anybody getting out of that elevator or going in the elevator. But.

01:04.72

vigorbranding

Yeah, very cool. Well you know, depending on who comes out of the elevator with whom this might be the most watched podcast of all time. So I'm pretty excited about it.

01:07.52

Robert Grimes

Anyway, so that's why I am but I am here for CES.

01:15.90

Robert Grimes

Some while.

01:18.62

vigorbranding

So anyway I've heard I mean you you call yourself? ah a techno vader you want to talk a little bit about that.

01:25.67

Robert Grimes

So I don't call myself that that's sort of a name that was given to me. Um, now I've been called a lot of things but I thought that was sort of interesting and I think it was a combination of putting technology and innovation which is what I spend most of my time looking At. Ah, but at the same time sort of the entrepreneurial side of helping Tech. You know to come Along. So I Just it sort of stuck so I used it and um, but anyway so it's really the combination I'm not really a highly technical person I can't program I can't do things like that. But. What I do do is I spend my time in technology trying to figure out and forecast where I think it's going to go and then certainly try to predict New Trends and sometimes see new companies which is actually why I'm out here at cs.

02:12.66

vigorbranding

Very Cool. So I mean a little refresher for those who aren't familiar with the international food and beverage technology association and what you and your team do the Ifbta promotes the use of technology within the food and beverage industry considering the constant advances in technology I Mean. You and I do Trends presentations. We speak on Trends and what's going on in food and beverage and technology and it's just technology I mean just that's always a trend. It's always the topic I mean you know it's a massive undertaking.. How do you begin to focus on that objective.

02:46.10

Robert Grimes

Well, ah, gosh you know that's such a big that's such a big subject and it's a very large question so I have blinders on so my blinders focus on technology as it relates to the hospitality food service and retail industry so you can't look at it all. But. You know I'm very focused on how technology putting aside my own personal interest and my own personal things that I like to use and do besides that. Um you know I'm very focused on how technology might work within our industries. However. What I've learned recently and I got a feeling that maybe 2024 is the year that yours and my worlds actually collide or combined and I'll tell you why because the word technology is changing and so as I go see technology even here at Cs like today. There's a food tech zone. That's going to be about technology of food. How do you cook it what type of foods you have that is technology yet most people thought technology in my world was point-of-ale and Kios and drivethroughs and but it isn't and your world working in the cpg world working with a lot of food products. That is technology as well and how it's going to be prepared and where it's going to be served and so I think the interesting thing about is that technology is evolving as a definition in hospitality food service and retail and that's sort of a very exciting thing to see.

04:09.57

vigorbranding

Yeah I think there's no question I mean it's It's a part of everything we do and you know whether it's the the marketing and restaurant world or if it's in the Cpg world. It's just it's it's ah it's just a paramount to be on top of the changing.

04:19.35

Robert Grimes

But I've enjoyed the trends that you put out every year and you put out that report and you're really talking about food trends that's something I have to study more now because as those trends are there how that food is delivered and where it's delivered and whether it's a fresh food bending machine which nobody ever thought that they could do that or something. You know all of a sudden what you're putting out in the trends in food I need to actually follow in the trends in technology and put those things together.

04:45.63

vigorbranding

Yeah, absolutely absolutely so like I've heard you say you're a restaurant manager first I think it's awesome because you worked at Bob's big boy. That's where it's all started and so you're seeing needs you you know? Obviously it was a long time ago and technology has just evolved so. Ah, how does that all tie into tech. How did you end up in tech from that start.

05:03.67

Robert Grimes

um um I always believe that you also puts people in the right place at the right time nobody expects to do what they do and when I talk to students today in hospitality schools and I tell them to do like a focus chart I tell them your focus chart can't be any more than a year or two out. Because your life could change you know based upon things happen. So I did start as a restaurant manager um actually Roy Rogers then Bob's big boy both owned by Marriott at the time and then Marriott hotels and then I got asked to do a systems project. And it was supposed to be like six months go to Marriott Headquarters I was working in in a Marriott hotel as a assistant restaurant manager in Washington and it was a six month deal come to come to corporate help us on a systems project. We need somebody who understands operations and then when you're done. We send you back and you get promoted to restaurant magic well without. Totally getting into my age or where I might have been at the time the world of the pc and I collided at Marriott headquarters and it came out and so y

GiftAMeal is an app that allows diners to take a photo of their order from a partner restaurant. For each photo taken, GiftAMeal donates to a local food bank to provide a meal to a family in need. Each month, more than 40,000 meals are provided through more than 100 local food banks in 37 states via GiftAMeal. In the last year, GiftAMeal has grown from 200 to almost 1,000 partner restaurants. Andrew fell in love with the profits-with-a-purpose business model as a student at Washington University. While there, he owned and operated a non-profit storefront dedicated to reuse and sustainability. Later, while interning at a venture capital firm, he developed the idea for GiftAMeal on his lunch break. GiftAMeal works with individual restaurants and franchises or franchise groups of restaurants like Red Robin. Making GiftAMeal an easy plug-and-play concept for restaurants and larger chains is a goal in 2024.

QUOTES

“Making an impact is something that’s always been important to me. I also love the creative autonomy that comes with entrepreneurship and trying to find those win-win scenarios and align incentives for different parties.” (Andrew) “We’ve seen that guests using GiftAMeal are returning 39% more frequently, they’re spending 20% more per visit and they’re tipping 32% more than a standard guest.” (Andrew) “We started off as a mobile app, but we’ve always paid attention to the different technologies that were being developed.” (Andrew) “Fuse Marketing and 5W PR studies found that 84% of Gen Z were more likely to purchase from a brand if (the brand) gives back and 71% of Millennials would pay more for a product if they knew that some of the proceeds were going to a good cause.” (Andrew) “Entrepreneurship is not an easy journey.” (Andrew)

TRANSCRIPT

00:00.00 vigorbranding Hello everyone today's episode of flirk tales I am joined by someone who takes cause marketing and entrepreneurial spirit to a new level. His name is Andrew Glanz and he's the founder of gift a meal. Welcome Andrew and tell us a little bit about yourself and some of your backstory. 00:14.43 Andrew Glantz Yeah, of course. Um so I'm originally from Los Angeles and I came out to St Louis to go to wash you for college when I was a student there I owned and operated a nonprofit storefront to promote reuse and sustainability and volunteered for various causes and. Ah, then when I had a summer internship at a venture capital firm and got exposed to the startup world I fell in love with the scalability of it and found out about the idea of a profits with a purpose business model that you could do well while doing good and came up with the idea for gift and meal when I was on a lunch break break and kind of ran with it and put my savings into it. Graduated in May Twenty seventeen and started out in St Louis and now started to really scale it up and grow it into what it is today. 01:01.68 vigorbranding That's very cool now like you know I'm I'm somewhat of an entrepreneur I started my own business when I was 27 and grew several companies and I love it. I mean I Just think it's ah a great way to be and and I love the energy of it. So How did you become this entrepreneur. How did you all? sorry. Family of entrepreneurs I mean just had ideas tell me about you like what would would motivate. You. 01:21.14 Andrew Glantz Yeah I mean I think that making an impact has always been something that's important to me and then I also just like the creative autonomy that comes with entrepreneurship and trying to find those win-win scenarios and align incentives for different parties and so with gifted meal I was trying to look at how we could. Create a win for the restaurants in terms of marketing win for them and and an easy way to add a community engagement program for them and then for food banks in terms of their fundraising and not taking a lot of effort for them to connect and be able to raise more funding and for diners to be able to discover and support socially conscious restaurants and. So I kind of combined all those together along with Tom shoes warby parker buy 1 give 1 model and applied it to the restaurant industry where guests can just take a photo of their food or drink at a restaurant that's a partner and then we make a donation to a local food bank to give a meal to someone in need in their community so tried to make it. Easy and align all those stakeholders. 02:19.11 vigorbranding It's fantastic I Mean it's a great Obviously it's a great cause it's ah it's a great concept and it's ah it's really, ah, a very smart model I mean I'm I'm really intrigued I Want to learn more about this. Um, so the gift of meal. How how does it work like you know you know you talked about it started. You had the idea you went to school. Um, you want to do good all good things. But how does how does it work like I mean I'll say this from the entrepreneurial side I mean we all got to make a living I mean you know you have nice clothes on I'm sure everyone's got to make a living. How does the model work like teach me teach me how it works. 02:40.96 Andrew Glantz Um, yeah. 02:47.85 Andrew Glantz Absolutely so the program is funded by the restaurant and free for the guest who's dining at the restaurant and so the restaurant's paying a flat monthly program fee to be involved so for a single unit mom and pop. It's $59 a month then each time a guest dines at the restaurant whether it's. Dine in take out her delivery. They can scan a Qr code off of signage from the restaurant which launches gift to meal on their phone. They then take a photo of their food or drink and when they do that we make a monetary donation from that program fee that the restaurant pays to a local food bank to cover its cost of providing a meal to someone to need in their community. And then the guest is invited to share that photo on their personal Facebook Instagram or Twitter x and we give an extra meal for each platform they share on since then they're promoting the restaurant to their friends in a positive way. Um in terms of the donation component. The donations are all local so we match. Each restaurant location to a food bank that services the county that they're in and each of these different food banks gets food donated to them by supermarkets food distributors community food drives and in storeing these big distribution facilities and then where gifted meal comes in is donating money to help fund the distribution costs. Getting that food from these big facilities to the hundreds of neighborhood pantries where those in need could actually access the food. So typically the food banks have listed on their website for every dollar donated they could provide 4 meals to those in need or 5 meals or three meals. So approximately it costs about twenty five cents to distribute a meal's worth of food in bulk. 04:19.56 Andrew Glantz Um, and so that's the amount that we're actually donating per photo taken. 04:23.27 vigorbranding That's awesome. So then you're helping facilitate Basically the outsourcing of the food or the the backend or back office. It's not really a food thing but I mean you're you're funding the the distribution the distribution model. So that's wonderful and then I mean so you know the the the. 04:33.92 Andrew Glantz Um, yeah. 04:40.34 vigorbranding Restaurant themselves in they get to tout the fact that they're doing this. They can feel good about themselves obviously but from a marketing perspective. They really get to sort of like ah say hey look. We're really supporting our community here. How are they? how are they taking advantage of that. 04:44.63 Andrew Glantz Um. 04:48.94 Andrew Glantz Yeah, yeah, Absolutely I mean the restaurant could be posting about it on their social media channels about how many meals they're providing and everything but more than that one step further with gift to meal. It's an interactive level of social responsibility. Where the guest feels good about themselves because they're putting in some amount of effort to take the photo but they feel that sense of gratitude towards the restaurant because the restaurant's the one that's ultimately paying for it and so it really creates that sense of emotional connection between the guest and the restaurant. 05:14.14 vigorbranding Um. 05:18.83 Andrew Glantz And makes them feel good about choosing that restaurant in addition to encouraging them to promote the restaurant to friends on social media and so we've seen that the guests using gift a meal on average are returning 39 % more frequently. They're spending 20% more per visit and they're tipping 32% more than a standard guest. Because of that sense of emotional connection. They have raises and satisfaction rates. You know the restaurant's getting Goodwill with these customers and they're also getting more word of mouth recommendations as a result on their social media to their friends and everything so it is something that's really cool to be able to see a true marketing return without having to. Ah, discount or offer Coupons or anything that slashes the margins for the restaurant. 05:58.88 vigorbranding Yeah, it's it's brilliant I mean because I mean let's face it. We are a marketing firm we market and and help market restaurants and you know a lot of times. It's all the different deals and the the value meals and all these kinds of things that you got to try and entice customers and you you brought forth a really smart ah program. 06:13.95 Andrew Glantz Next. 06:15.31 vigorbranding And it's It's pretty remarkable and and I love the fact that you know your numbers I mean you can you're you're able to tell talk about the the growth and sales the tipping which is really important to the servers and we got take care of the servers I think it's really an interesting ah model Really really, really cool so you should be yeah, be very proud of what you built. 06:22.60 Andrew Glantz Enough. 06:32.14 vigorbranding So like Okay, so how do you? How do you s

opsi is a daily workflow app built to progress the way modern operators manage their restaurant. With robust recipe management, true recipe costing, task and food prep lists, and product guides, opsi is suited for any operation looking to maximize efficiencies within their kitchen team, and cut down on employee training times. James has 20 years of experience in the hospitality industry and a strong vision for technology’s role in it. His time in the kitchen has taken him from New Jersey to Rhode Island, Washington DC, San Francisco and Minnesota. As a chef, James has worked alongside industry-leading chefs such as Michael Mina and Gavin Kaysen, giving him a profound understanding of restaurant operations. The inspiration for opsi came early in James’ career after he took over as chef de cuisine in a restaurant that was in the midst of change and facing issues with internal communication.

QUOTES

“(Being a restaurateur) is a wild and challenging business. From any angle, as an operator it’s even more challenging because you’ve got 50+ people banking on you.” (James) “I love the stories behind entrepreneurial ideas because they’re usually very simple, very true and very authentic and that’s what makes them wonderful.” (Michael) “Technology was a space for me where we could develop a solution where we could keep all the information in there, keep the team on the same page and marching to the same sheet of music and moving in the same direction.” (James) “(opsi) made it easier for us to focus on the larger goal, which was servicing the guest and putting out a really high quality product.” (James) “In any kind of creative business, there’s organized chaos and artistry but I agree that people need and love process. A little organization isn’t a bad thing.” (Michael) “My belief is that anyone – from a food truck to a three-star Michelin restaurant – can utilize opsi.” (James)

TRANSCRIPT

00:01.48 vigorbranding Hello everyone today I am joined by someone who knows a lot about how to run an a fishing kitchen his name is chef James Pasa Faro James how you doing say hello and give us a little bit of your backstory.   00:17.65 James Hi thanks for having me. Um, yeah, my background I started in the cooking culinary world when I was really young something I really wanted to do from a young age bounced around a bunch ended up in Minnesota. I work for some really great chefs like Gavin Casean and Michael Mina and um here I am now working in technology which I never thought I probably have to say out loud.   00:42.10 vigorbranding That's awesome. We're gonna talk about opsy here in a little bit but where did the whole love of cooking come from like where did it start I mean how did you? How did you happen upon it.   00:51.22 James Yeah, um, you know a lot of the times I think generally this story kind of goes for people. It's like you know they're cooking in a kitchen if they're grandmother or mother some some family member or it's a family-owned operator. My parents. Ah, my mom was in sales for telecoms so she worked for att my father was in floing so he worked worked in union in New York and then he owned a business in New Jersey where we grew up and he just had friends that were in hospitality so they would always throw a a game dinner every year at a restaurant called perona farms and it was run by 3 brothers and.   01:09.94 vigorbranding And.   01:25.26 James They're they've been in business for over 100 years now and they're like in their sixth generation of family running it. But at the time um Kirk was the chef and he was kind of running this program where he could. Ah, bring in local hunters and fishers and cook a dinner each year and kind of run it for friends and family and kind of started blossoming from the late 80 s to early 90 s where he actually um, he launched a really successful smoke salmon business and he started sign. Ah the likes like Danielle on Louis Palydan um wolfgang puck   01:54.87 vigorbranding Um, wow.   01:55.80 James Kind of all over the country and then he started bringing these really large name chefs to this game dinner every year. So when I was like ten or eleven it was every Tuesday of every year for first Tuesday every year they would close the restaurant prep for the weekend weeding up to that Tuesday and then these chefs would come off from all over the country and at the time I had. You know and no idea it was like mingai and Robert Irvine and Danielle Balloud and all these people um, but what really drew me to it was just it was seemed like friends having fun together and it was the energy of the space and the camaraderie and the food was obviously a plus on top of it. But it wasn't ever that. Ah. That magic moment of like something hitting the pan or me tasting something. It was more about being in an environment being around people. Um, and I think really just like the culture and the energy that was built around it at the time was what really drew me in.   02:42.85 vigorbranding It's fantastic and the game dinner sounds awesome. Yeah, you have to at the end here if you have ah a recipe for Elk I Need I mean I I always have a freezer full of Elk I'm a diehard hunter and you know there's nothing better than having a great meal with friends around something you know that you've actually worked really hard for so.   03:00.94 vigorbranding Ah's it's because it's not easy to cook game I mean it's not I mean people ruin it a lot so that's fantastic. Um, so you work in Minneapolis San Francisco Boston um, did you ever have a desire to do your own restaurant.   03:01.38 James No, it's not.   03:15.61 James Um I did I mean it's obviously still there right? Ah, you know you travel different paths and it's something I definitely want to do at some point I hope to pick it up in the future. Um, but it's ah as you know and people you talked to.. It's a wildly challenging business. Ah, from any angle of it. But as an operator. It's you know ever more challenging because you're looking at 50 plus people that are banking on you.   03:39.33 vigorbranding Yeah, and no question Plus well and be an entrepreneur though. But you're now so you jumped into the tech. So that's so much easier than running a restaurant right? Ah yeah.   03:46.48 James Um, bit different ah different skill set different different patients level.   03:52.50 vigorbranding So how talk a little bit about ah opsy I Mean you've said in the past the idea of opsy started with a simple concept right? You know how to get rid of the paper clutter. You want to talk a little bit about that and you know the brain child behind it I Love entrepreneurial I mean I I consider myself one and I love the stories behind them because they're usually very.   03:59.87 James Yeah.   04:07.95 vigorbranding Simple. They're usually very true. They're very authentic and that's what makes them kind of wonderful.   04:13.31 James yeah with opsy um yeah I was about 26 in San Francisco I was working for Michael at the time. Um I just took over as chef de cuisine for a restaurant called r and 74 that was in the fiai. Um, and it was this really beautiful french. Burgundy restaurant built on a great wine program and I was drowning I um, you know took my first step into the really deep end. They trusted me with a lot of so lot of things inside the restaurant and what I really wanted was just something that I didn't have to chase around paper. Um I didn't have to. Print all this stuff off overcommunic communicate fill the binders up and I kind of went on this search for something that I thought should have been out there at the time we all had iphones and we all still have iphones and Android devices and there was these like little computers in our hands every day that I just assumed there had to even been something right? and when I went out and looked it. Didn't really satisfy the need. So I kind of went down this path with my friend and we started building. Yeah a dodpercent.   05:15.12 vigorbranding That's awesome. Necessity is the mother of invention right? So so oil stained prepless and recipes you want talk a little bit about that.   05:28.31 James Yeah, it was um yeah we were. We were going through this large change at the restaurant I I came in as an executive soou chef and then when ah the chef Mike Graffiti left I took over as a Cdc for him. Um, it was you know it was very disjointed in communication. It was kind of hurting the team because it was more of a a survived less thrive situation on a day-to-day basis. Um, and we really were very leaning forward into systems and system orientation for communication and kind of removing a lot of this gray area which a lot of restaurants are gray generally. Ah, removing a lot of the gray in this human element of just like collecting the physicals and having to put them on stations and keep them in places because you know they get oil spilled on them and you have to rewrite them or print them out again. Um, but always having a backup somewhere and technology for me was that solution to kind of develop a space where we could keep all the information in there. Keep the team all on the same page marching in and singing off the same sheet of music and moving in the same direction so that every single day when they came in they knew the goal. They knew what their goals were and what they were driving towards and then once you kind of for us when you got rid of a lot of minutiae of like where is it who wrote this who did that who did this where as a recipe. Um, it made it easier for us to focus on the larger goal which was servicing the guest and like putting out really high quality product opposed to just making it through the day because the system was broken.   06:52.28 vigorbranding Yeah I mean in any kind of a creative business which obviously being a chef is super creative in a kitchen I mean there's that organized Chaos. There's that artistry. But I think I do agree I think that people need and love

Home Run Inn is a family owned & operated establishment with nine restaurants throughout the Chicago area. They’ve been making pizza since 1947 and began creating and selling frozen pizzas for grocery store distribution nationwide in the 1960s. Dan is the 4th generation leader of Home Run Inn Pizza. He started in the family business at the age of 13 as a busboy. Home Run Inn’s signature square-sliced pizzas originated in the 1940s when the tavern would slice the pizza into small sample-sized pieces to entice customers. The restaurant’s frozen pizza was born after a regular customer used to request par-baked pizzas to take to his summer home in Wisconsin. Home Run Inn Pizza has a synergistic relationship between the restaurant brand and the frozen brand and doesn’t view the relationship as cannibalistic when it comes to sales for either brand.

QUOTES

“Everyone who has a restaurant wants to get into CPG. They want to put it in grocery stories. They think it’s easy to do CPG.” (Michael) “Our first distributor was our bartender. He would take pizzas after work, walk them down to the corner grocery store and pick up the cash the next day.” (Dan) “Our frozen pizza production facilities model and mirror what we did in the restaurants. My uncle would say, ‘The reason we make it like that is because that’s the only way I know how.’” (Dan) “Pizza is like sex. It’s all good, but some is better than others.” (Michael) “The (Home Run Inn Pizza) restaurants drive brand awareness on the marketing side for our frozen pizza.” (Dan) “A brand is a promise. Many times, an agency is hired to create that story or build that authenticity. What’s beautiful about what Home Run Inn Pizza has, is that (story) is already baked in.” (Michael)

TRANSCRIPT

00:00.22 vigorbranding And with some great guests and so I thought well we should keep it going. It's good for social media. It's good for you know it's good. So I mean you know I'll be honest've I'm only done a few of these but it's been fun and you know I don't know it's just ah, you know the guys do a great job. So it turns out all right? yeah.   00:06.19 Dan Costello Um, yeah.   00:16.98 Dan Costello Um, cool, Awesome. Look forward to it. Don't give hi.   00:19.29 vigorbranding Yeah, yeah, yeah, know yeah this will be this will be a lap for you I mean you know it's just just like your story and I mean it sincerely I mean great story, great family. Great product. It's just you know it's just it's just super cool. We got a guy here working the production Robert who you're already his fan. He's a huge fan of home run his friends.   00:28.80 Dan Costello Gun.   00:36.54 vigorbranding Took him there and he you know is one of his best buddies is out there archer ra and thirty first street with archer a thirty first yeah Yeah, so yeah, yeah, so yeah, yeah, heyan on one thing we're you know can keep casual and loose. We're already kind of rolling here. Um, just 1 thing he got to do once we kind of finish up the convo.   00:42.27 Dan Costello Ah, okay, nice Robert very good.   00:55.40 vigorbranding We just gotta have you hang on the line thus til your tilll your file kind of uplis what locally so we' probably just got hang out for extra 10 minutes when we're done reporting just to make yeah just to make sure everything you know gets off load quickly and everything everything like that. Okay, we're wrong. So guy you're ready cool hi.   01:02.40 Dan Costello At the end of it. Yes, yes.   01:12.79 Dan Costello Um, new promise.   01:14.91 vigorbranding Well again, this will be fun casual tell stories. Enjoy it. It's all good. So I'm I'm ready when if Dan's ready if you're ready Robert yeah, we're good to go best all right. all right   01:24.43 Dan Costello Hi whenever you're ready I'm good Mike.   01:31.36 vigorbranding Hello everyone I am joined today by my good friend and our guest Dan Costello Dan is the Ceo of home run in pizza in the Chicago area now home run in pizza says a lot right there Dan You want to say hello and give us a little backstory.   01:46.66 Dan Costello Hi guys mike good to hear from me again. Yeah so home run in is a family owned pizza establishment in the Chicago area. We have 9 local restaurants including one that is a partnership in midway airport. We've been in business since nineteen business started in 1927 and pizza business started 1947 and we also along with the restaurants we have frozen pizzas. Ah, in across the country. So we're nationwide with various retailers like Albertson Safeway and they were regional with other retailers like Walmart and um and Kroger and then you know find ourselves in the southeast southwest and covering coast to coast. So. That's the core of what we do.   02:33.18 vigorbranding Yeah, it's it's ah it's it's an amazing story and so it's super near and dear to me, not not only your friend but with Vigor we're we're obviously really passionate about restaurants and restaurant brands. But. Quench another company we own and have started. It's all cpg so you cover both worlds. So this is really super intriguing and as I said near and dear to my heart. But let's talk about how did you get started? Yeah, ah, you're a bus boy at age 13 you would talk a little bit about the the early days of of Dan's career   03:00.41 Dan Costello Sure, um, so yeah, so I think I said a fourth generation. So it's family business so we grew up. We grew up in it. We were encouraged especially very early to come into the business. So I you know I started when I when I was 13 I started. As a bus boy at our original restaurant on thirty first street on the on the southwest side of Chicago there store still there. It's doing really well so grew up on the restaurant side of the business. So that's back in the oh there's probably back around 1984 1985 and my uncle who unfortunately no longer is with us. That's when he really started making a big push to try to take our restaurant product into the frozen ah retail section of the grocery stores. So. He was kind of the driving force behind that 1987 he built our first factory which is behind that original restaurant. Still there today. We still use it. We have a main facility now out in the suburbs of Chicago and Woodridge Illinois but that's ah you know that was kind of the the advent of the frozen pizza goes back. You know quite, it's grounded in the roots of our restaurants you know making par big pizzas for people cooking them halfway people taking them home. So my uncle is just kind of like we got to figure out how to how to do this on ah on a grocery type scale.   04:26.53 vigorbranding Very cool. So okay, it says on here. You're also sausage grinder now some would consider me a sausage grinder my role now but you can talk a little bit about that you started as a kid. You're a sausage grinder this is the sausage thing um from what I understand pepperoni is the number 1 topping in the United States except for.   04:32.37 Dan Costello That's a question.   04:43.31 vigorbranding In Chicago.   04:44.18 Dan Costello Chicago Midwest maybe Milwaukee too I'd have to check with the people there but we know in Chicago the number one pizza dock and sausage. It's it's ah yeah, it dates back I mean it's his historical I mean we just got a lot of ah eastern european that settled here they they went with sausage. So um.   04:48.88 vigorbranding Yeah, yeah.   05:01.70 Dan Costello Yeah I mean we did everything from Scratch. We'd make our dough. You know we blended our sauce and we would one of the jobs I had as a teenager which was Definite. Weve had a butcher shop I worked in the butcher Shop. We'd get In. We'd get in pork and we'd have to take the bones out So and then we'd we. We'd cut it and then we'd. Grind it. So I Guess yeah, it's sausage Grinder. You know that was that was a job in the past.   05:25.88 vigorbranding So I love some of the the history of it I mean it was started in the restaurant I mean I think you told me the story and I've I've noticed it before I knew you would you know go round pizzas but somehow you guys decide to cut them up in little squares. Why why did you do that.   05:42.30 Dan Costello Yeah, so the history on that is you know so my grandfather got out of the war. Um, so nineteen circuit 1945 right and he gets comes back and he's looking for a job and he was you know he's a mechanic by trade.   05:59.10 Dan Costello But he couldn't find he couldn't get a job so he went to work from my motherin-law who owned a bar called the home run in and so he's working at the bar for you know a couple years and he had he he had come. Ah, you know he's from italy from bar italy so he has you know a version of pizza my grandmother encourages him to. Show it to my great grandmother so they start making it in the restaurant and giving it away to get people to come in to drink and um so what they did is they cut it into small tiny squares. That's why Chicago tavern pizzas is cut in squares this listen. You know from our perspective this is how it started for us because they needed it to fit on a cocktail napping. They didn't have plates. They didn't have China they they weren't a restaurant. They were a bar they were just trying to so they're just trying to get people to yeah have a little snack by another beer so that is why our pizzas are cut into. Tiny squares and a lot of the pizzas in Chicago because that's how it was introduced. It was introduced as this we're one of the first pizzas in Chicago we started in 1947 we believe that you know like there might have been another 1 or 2 competitors starting in 44 45 but that's how it came to be for us cocktail mac and head fit. Had to give it away.   07:16.19 vigorbranding That's fantastic. Can you tell tell me the story because again, it's such a cool history. So your Uncle's in the pizza shop talk about how you got into the cpg site the frozen pizza I mean that's like everyone's dream whoever makes or has a restaurant. Ah you know they want to do a