Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Forktales
| Titre | Date | Durée | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kenny Morrison – Founder of VCC Brands and Pioneer in Cannabis-Infused Beverages | 04 juin 2025 | 00:52:27 | |
Kenny Morrison is a cannabis industry pioneer and the founder of VCC Brands and CQ Drinks. With a background in documentary filmmaking and early cannabis retail, Kenny has been instrumental in shaping the cannabis-infused beverage category since 2008. VCC Brands, originally Venice Cookie Company, is a legacy cannabis company focused exclusively on beverages since 2020. Its flagship brand, CQ (Cannabis Quencher), creates micro- and macro-dose drinks designed to be approachable, flavorful and stigma-free. Founded in Venice Beach, VCC Brands embodies the area’s countercultural spirit with a refined, modern twist. CQ was born partly in response to early San Francisco regulations requiring “cannabis” to appear prominently on product labels. Today, the brand operates in seven states (soon to be eight) through a mix of licensing partnerships and hemp distribution, aiming to normalize cannabis consumption with clean branding, fast-acting nanoemulsification technology, and a lifestyle-oriented appeal. Kenny got into the cannabis industry by helping friends transition from underground cultivation to legal retail, ultimately co-founding one of LA’s first dispensaries. VCC Brands began as a baked goods company but pivoted fully to beverages to focus on “the future of drinking.” CQ Drinks emphasizes approachability by avoiding stereotypical stoner branding and designing products with women and first-time consumers in mind. Kenny compares CQ’s brand positioning to “the Corona of cannabis” — a laid-back, beachy vibe grounded in authenticity. Nanoemulsification helps cannabis beverages hit faster, making them more comparable to alcohol and easing consumer adoption. Despite being a cannabis entrepreneur, Kenny uses the product less than most of his family and believes in freedom of choice across alcohol and cannabis. He stresses honesty, reliability, and customer service as keys to building trust in the cannabis space, especially for new users. Regional product tweaks — like adding seasonal flavors in Massachusetts — have helped CQ Drinks grow in both the dispensary and hemp markets. QUOTES“Visiting one of these early stores, it was almost like an anthropological experiment for me, which really just means that I’m a thrill seeker.” (Kenny) “Ever since I was a little kid, my father never hid his cannabis use from me. Even when I was nine, he’d say, ‘Hey Kenny, I’m going to go get some grass, want to come with me?'” (Kenny) “We’re basically, you know, the original prohibition cannabis beverage brand… the things we’ve been through to keep this thing alive, it’s a frickin’ novel.” (Kenny) “The goal is to get to a place where we can really tell that story in sort of a deep, profound way.” (Kenny) “My theory has just been, look, if girls like to drink it, guys are going to drink it.” (Kenny) “We’re all trying to target the alcohol consumer looking to moderate their alcohol consumption… and when a cannabis drink affects you as quick as an alcoholic drink does, that’s going to increase consumership.” (Kenny) “Cannabis should be perceived as a benefit to be promoted rather than a harm to be tolerated.” (Kenny) “Something that makes cannabis very different than alcohol is because cannabis is non-toxic… tolerances vary far greater than people’s tolerance for alcohol.” (Kenny) “You’ve got to have great customer service and you’ve got to be honest. Especially in cannabis.” (Kenny) “We’re gathering a ton of information based on the success of those products in their territories… then we can release the greatest hits in our hemp lineup.” (Kenny) “I just think we’re in this season where the general knowledge of cannabis is slowly, gradually building up.” (Kenny) | |||
| Laurel Orley – CEO of Daily Crunch and Innovator in Better-for-You Snacking | 22 mai 2025 | 00:48:41 | |
Laurel Orley is the founder and CEO of Daily Crunch Snacks and a mission-driven entrepreneur with a background in advertising. After more than a decade building major brands like Dove at Unilever, she transitioned to launch her own company focused on health, flavor, and impact. Daily Crunch Snacks is a women-owned snack brand offering sprouted, air-dried almonds and other nut blends with bold, innovative flavors. Rooted in a family recipe and a mission to support mental health, the brand emphasizes clean ingredients, sustainability, and crave-worthy crunch. Laurel launched Daily Crunch with her aunt Diane, who developed the unique sprouting process after studying brain health in India. The brand debuted in March 2020—days before the COVID-19 shutdown—and adapted its launch strategy for a digital-first world. Daily Crunch has since expanded into 6,000+ stores and was named the 13th fastest-growing food and beverage company by Inc. Laurel is a board member of the Upcycled Food Association and a member of EY’s Entrepreneurial Winning Women Class of 2024. The brand’s mental health mission is personal: Laurel’s cousin lost his life to bipolar disorder, inspiring her family to create The Support Network, which Daily Crunch supports financially and publicly. Laurel’s experience on Dove’s Real Beauty campaign taught her the power of mission-driven marketing and authenticity. The sprouting process transforms the texture of almonds, making them crisp and chip-like while improving digestibility. Product innovation stems from a blend of trend reports, consumer feedback, and Laurel’s own flavor instincts—like turmeric & sea salt or Nashville Hot. Collaborations, like their Fly By Jing partnership, are a strategic focus for driving awareness and reaching new audiences. Upcycling ingredients—such as pickle ends from Cleveland Kitchen—helps reduce waste and differentiate flavor profiles. Daily Crunch doesn’t lead with its mission, but invites consumers to discover its mental health advocacy as they dig deeper into the brand. QUOTES“I wanted to launch a brand with a mission that I believed in. Our mission is actually mental health awareness.” (Laurel) “Soaking nuts removes phytic acid, an anti-nutrient, making them more bioavailable, easier to digest and more nutrient dense.” (Laurel) “The crunch is what gets people in. It’s lighter, airier, crunchier. Honestly, it’s like a chip.” (Laurel) “You’re always going to have setbacks. My motto is always two steps forward, one step back.” (Laurel) “We had to throw out 20,000 pounds of almonds and I didn’t have the right insurance for it. I almost threw in the towel.” (Laurel) “There’s a fine balance between mental and physical health. It all ladders back up to brain health.” (Laurel) “When you see someone in the wild buying your product, it’s the best feeling. I was hiding behind a pillar at the airport.” (Laurel) “The savory-sweet combo is really resonating right now. Our last two launches were savory, but you can definitely do both.” (Laurel) | |||
| Judy Joo – Chef, entrepreneur and leading voice in modern Korean cuisine | 16 mai 2025 | 00:43:34 | |
Judy Joo is a classically trained chef, entrepreneur, and television personality whose unconventional journey spans engineering, Wall Street, and the world’s top kitchens. She is an Iron Chef, cookbook author, and dynamic force in the food world, celebrated for modernizing and globalizing Korean cuisine. Judy is the founder of Seoul Bird, a Korean fast-casual fried chicken concept with locations in London, New York, Las Vegas, and beyond.Seoul Bird merges bold Korean street food flavors with the speed and scale of modern dining, combining Judy’s culinary heritage and operational expertise. Before launching her restaurant empire, Judy trained at the French Culinary Institute, worked in Michelin-starred restaurants like The French Laundry and Gordon Ramsay’s empire, and became a recognizable face on Food Network. Seoul Bird is expanding through a strategic mix of franchising and licensing, including high-traffic venues like Citi Field and Edinburgh Airport. Judy left Wall Street to pursue her passion for food, trading finance for the kitchen with zero expectations—just love for cooking. Her engineering and banking backgrounds continue to shape how she designs restaurants and runs operations at scale. As a Korean-American woman in male-dominated fields—finance, engineering, and restaurants—Judy forged ahead with “fearlessness or I just don’t care” confidence. She believes “today’s invention is tomorrow’s tradition,” especially in defining authenticity in global cuisines like Korean fried chicken. Seoul Bird thrives in arenas and airports, offering high-volume, high-flavor experiences with a focus on simplicity, quality, and cultural storytelling. She emphasizes the power of brand building—through books, TV, and food—as key to her business success. Judy finds inspiration everywhere, from grocery store aisles to international travel, always absorbing and evolving her culinary creativity. She’s proud to see Korean food embraced globally, transforming from a source of school-lunch embarrassment into a pop-culture phenomenon. QUOTES“I love creating experiences. I love creating meals. I love food. I love the language of food. It is a language of love for me.” (Judy) “I’m going to downgrade my life in every way possible and work weekends and evenings and much longer hours and get paid a fraction of what I was getting paid.” (Judy) “I remember hesitating. Like, which one do I want to do? I was like, oh, math and science is easy for me. I’ll go to engineering school.” (Judy) “If I want to be in these industries where I am the one and only minority, the one and only female, I don’t care. I’m going to do it.” (Judy) “A restaurant is a business at the end of the day. You have to know cost control, maximize profits, and understand finance.” (Judy) “I know so many chefs who can’t even get their way around an Excel spreadsheet.” (Judy) “Koreans are obsessed with fried chicken. Obsessed. Obsessed.” (Judy) “Today’s invention is tomorrow’s tradition. Korean fried chicken came from war and evolved. Is it authentic? I think so.” (Judy) “I’ve gone from being embarrassed about my lunchbox to everybody spamming me, asking, ‘What are they eating? What are they drinking?'” (Judy) “As long as the DNA is there—that makes it Korean.” (Judy) “Television cheffing is much easier. You’re in a nice air-conditioned studio versus burning yourself and dealing with employees.” (Judy) “Every single time I’m in a grocery store, whenever I travel, you’re constantly seeing new things. That’s a huge source of inspiration.” (Judy) | |||
| Denise Woodard – CPG entrepreneur and advocate for allergy-friendly snacking | 08 mai 2025 | 00:34:32 | |
Denise Woodard is the founder and CEO of Partake Foods. She launched the brand after her daughter was diagnosed with multiple food allergies. A former Coca-Cola executive, Denise became the first Black woman to publicly raise over $1 million for a CPG food startup. Partake Foods creates delicious, allergy-friendly snacks that are free from the top nine allergens. With a mission rooted in inclusivity and accessibility, the brand is now available in over 18,000 stores nationwide and continues to grow through innovation and community impact. The brand’s name, “Partake,” reflects Denise’s desire for her daughter and others with allergies to fully participate in the joy of food. Denise’s journey began with a pitch competition and a nudge from her nanny, Martha—who now holds equity in the business. Partake has collaborated with major partners like Marvel and Sesame Street, and has donated over one million boxes of cookies to support families in need. The company is deeply involved in social impact initiatives, including work with No Kid Hungry and the Food Equality Initiative. Denise founded Partake to create allergy-safe foods her daughter could enjoy, after struggling to find suitable options in the market. Leaving Coca-Cola, she underestimated how challenging it would be to build a brand from scratch without the resources of a large company. Getting allergy-friendly products manufactured required finding rare, specialized partners willing to work with a startup founder. Her family—especially her daughter—has been central to the business journey, often pitching in during trade shows and events. Denise emphasizes leading with great taste rather than a long list of dietary claims when introducing products to new consumers. Building strong retail partnerships is about follow-through, not just shelf placement—it requires active investment and support. She believes inclusivity should be embedded naturally into company culture, hiring, and investor relationships. To stay energized, Denise now prioritizes time for reflection, creativity, and rest, recognizing the importance of long-term sustainability. QUOTES“I sought out products that she could eat and enjoy safely and that we could eat as a family together and couldn’t find the things that I was looking for and decided to do something about it.” (Denise) “I knew enough to be dangerous. I could speak the lingo. I knew the acronyms. I did not realize what I was in for.” (Denise) “There’s not very many allergy friendly contract manufacturers. So calling someone up and getting them to agree to work with a woman with an idea was definitely a challenge.” (Denise) “Being an entrepreneur is a family sport. My daughter too, I think about all the sacrifice that she made. She can probably put together a trade show booth faster than most adults.” (Denise) “It feels like a game of whack-a-mole. It’s like you think you got one thing covered and then, oh, tariffs or something. Every week there’s a new adventure.” (Denise) “The name Partake originally came from this idea that I wanted my daughter and people with food allergies to be able to partake.” (Denise) “You’re nothing if you have a story with no good product. And honestly, the same if you have a good product but nothing to talk about.” (Denise) “I want my employees to feel like they have the freedom to be able to do the same thing because I think this whole idea of separating your personal life and work life isn’t healthy for anyone.” (Denise) “I’ve just started this practice. Making time to think and be inspired—setting out time to journal, to go on walks, to visit grocery stores, to visit small markets.” (Denise) “Food is something that’s supposed to evoke positive memories for everyone. And even if you have food allergies, like you should be able to have that same joy.” (Denise)
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| Stephanie Jaeger – President of Les Dames d’Escoffier International (LDEI) | 27 mars 2025 | 00:35:46 | |
Stephanie Jaeger is the President of Les Dames d’Escoffier International (LDEI) and a veteran of the restaurant industry with over 35 years of experience. She also serves as a Learning and Development Specialist for the Joey Restaurant Group, where she focuses on training and team culture. LDEI is a global philanthropic organization of women leaders in food, beverage, and hospitality. With over 2,800 members across 42 chapters worldwide, LDEI supports women through scholarships, mentorship, and networking opportunities to elevate and advance their careers. Founded in response to the exclusion of women from the all-male “Friends of Escoffier” society, LDEI has grown into a powerful network that champions leadership, education, and community. Under Stephanie’s leadership, the organization is expanding its reach, including new chapters in Mexico and Italy, and launching new initiatives like the M.F.K. Fisher Symposium for Women’s Food and Storytelling. LDEI was born from a desire to give women a seat at the culinary table—where they had previously been excluded—and now supports thousands of members across the globe. Stephanie initially joined LDEI over 20 years ago and, inspired by mentorship and a desire to represent a global voice, rose through the ranks to become its international president. “You have to see it to be it”—Stephanie emphasized the importance of visibility and representation for women in leadership across hospitality and culinary fields. Mentorship is central to LDEI’s mission; the organization provides not just scholarships, but ongoing personal support to help women succeed in their careers. While representation at the top is critical, Stephanie believes respect and equality must also be reinforced in everyday kitchen culture and among mid-level staff. LDEI’s upcoming M.F.K. Fisher Symposium will spotlight women in food media and storytelling, creating a space for inspiration, connection, and collaboration. Stephanie’s work at Joey Restaurant Group complements her LDEI leadership, allowing her to show women within the organization that there’s always a next step in their careers. Despite growth, barriers like unconscious bias and lack of access to education persist in the industry, making LDEI’s mission more relevant than ever. QUOTES“I either needed to step up or step aside. So here I am stepping up and excited about it.” (Stephanie) “You have to see it to be it. You have to see somebody in that position, and I would encourage anybody in the industry to put a woman in that leadership position so that somebody younger can see themselves there too.” (Stephanie) “Every time I see a woman in the industry, she’s breaking a barrier. She’s showing that it’s possible. She’s showing me that I can do it too. And every time I see a woman on the Food Network or read about one taking on a leadership role, it’s one more reminder that we belong.” (Stephanie) “We need to make sure that women are not only in the kitchen, but treated with respect and equals. It’s not just about being there—it’s about being seen, being supported, and being recognized as just as capable.” (Stephanie) “Mentorship is the ability to talk about your experiences in a positive way—not in a ‘you’ll never get there’ way, but ‘look what I’ve done, and you can too.’ It’s not about gatekeeping—it’s about opening doors and saying, ‘Come on in, let me show you how I did it.’” (Stephanie) “Asking for help really can come down to just saying, ‘Is this a crazy idea?’ And sometimes you just need someone—man or woman—to say, ‘You’re not crazy’ or ‘Maybe you should rethink that.’ It’s about having someone to bounce things off of, someone who listens and understands.” (Stephanie) “I want to raise more money to support more women. I want to get the LDEI name out there more, increase our membership, and reach more women who could benefit from being part of this network. There are so many who just need the opportunity.” (Stephanie) “The restaurant industry really should be fun. Maybe don’t take yourself too seriously. You have to be able to smile, to enjoy what you’re doing. And at Joey, we focus on working as a team. That’s what creates a cohesive, engaging environment.” (Stephanie) “There is a place for you if you want to keep going up the ladder. And I think because of my own mentors and experiences with LDEI, I’m able to show that to the women I work with every day. Whether they’re servers or line cooks, I want them to see that there’s a next step.” (Stephanie) | |||
| Yanni Hufnagel – Founder of Lemon Perfect | 14 mars 2025 | 00:47:50 | |
Yanni Hufnagel, a former college basketball coach turned entrepreneur, is the founder and CEO of Lemon Perfect, a fast-growing enhanced water brand. With a background in coaching at top programs like Harvard and Vanderbilt, Hufnagel applied his competitive drive and leadership skills to disrupt the beverage industry with a health-focused, innovative brand. Lemon Perfect is a fast-growing beverage brand redefining the enhanced water category with its refreshing, zero-sugar, lemon-infused drinks. Made from organic lemons and packed with antioxidants and electrolytes, Lemon Perfect delivers great taste and hydration without artificial ingredients, appealing to health-conscious consumers seeking a flavorful, better-for-you alternative. Lemon Perfect offers a lineup of refreshing, zero-sugar, lemon-infused beverages made from organic, hand-picked lemons. Packed with antioxidants, electrolytes, and vitamin C, the brand’s flavors include classics like Original Lemon and fan-favorites like Dragon Fruit Mango, Peach Raspberry, and Blueberry Acai. The drinks are cold-pressed, keto-friendly, and designed for guilt-free hydration. Lemon Perfect has rapidly expanded its distribution footprint, securing shelf space in major retailers like Whole Foods, Target, Kroger, Publix, and Costco, while also growing its presence in convenience stores, gyms, and online marketplaces nationwide. Yanni was inspired to create the Lemon Perfect brand in 2017 after a chance encounter with a man who introduced him to drinking organic lemon water each morning as part of his daily routine. Squeezing and juicing lemons each morning was a hassle and Yanni was determined to create a product that took the work out of drinking organic lemon water. Seven years after launching the brand, Lemon Perfect has sold more than 100 million bottles. In early 2020, Beyonce featured a bottle of Lemon Perfect in one of her Instagram posts. It gave the brand a boost. In April 2022, she became a key investor in the brand. QUOTES“So many parallels between coaching and entrepreneurship and running a business. At the core, you’re telling a story. Being a great storyteller is probably the most important skill you can have as a recruiter and as a college baseball coach. [As an entrepreneur] being able to tell a story is also important, and it all starts with the product.” (Yanni) “There’s a difference between selling and presenting. I’ve always felt like presenting was more important than selling. I’ve always tried to present our story and vision and not sell it.” (Yanni) “I was having lunch with an angel investor and I said ‘John, what do you think about this idea?’ and he said ‘I love it. Anything you can build that captures a piece of someone’s daily routine is worth going for. You can build a business around it.’ “ (Yanni) “We’ve sold 100 million bottles. How do you sell one billion? In America and beyond, they don’t read words, they read pictures on packaging. Putting fruit on the (packaging) was a big decision. Simplifying our message.” (Yanni) “We had an incredible entrepreneurial culture for the first five years and then we lost our way a little bit. I’ve been focused in the last six months or so on refinding our entrepreneurial way. When you’re building a beverage and you have to scratch and claw and fight and bleed every day, you need that.” (Yanni) “You have to have a relentless motor and I think we have a group that will do that.” (Yanni) | |||
| Jeff Broadhurst – CEO of Eat’n Park Hospitality Group | 26 févr. 2025 | 00:41:03 | |
Eat’n Park is a regional restaurant chain known for its family-friendly atmosphere, classic American comfort food, and iconic Smiley Cookies. Founded in 1949 in Pittsburgh, it offers breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with a focus on fresh, made-to-order meals. The brand emphasizes hospitality, community involvement, and sustainability initiatives. Parkhurst Dining, a division of Eat’n Park Hospitality Group, provides customized dining solutions for universities, corporations, and cultural institutions. With a focus on fresh, locally sourced ingredients and scratch-made meals, Parkhurst emphasizes hospitality, sustainability, and culinary excellence, creating memorable dining experiences tailored to each client’s needs. Jeff said the decision to create Parkhurst Dining was rooted in the desire to focus on an industry that they knew well – food. Eat’n Park’s FarmSource program, launched in 2002, partners with local farms to source fresh, sustainable ingredients, supporting regional agriculture while delivering high-quality, farm-to-table meals. In 2024, Eat’n Park celebrated its 75th anniversary and has nearly 60 locations in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia.The restaurant has been a family business since the 1970s. Jeff Broadhurst is the President and CEO of Eat’n Park Hospitality Group. He joined the company in 1996, became President in 2006, and CEO in 2008. Under his leadership, the company has expanded to include multiple dining concepts and emphasizes community engagement and sustainability. Jeff works side-by-side with his brothers, Brooks (Senior Vice President of Food and Beverage) and Mark (Vice President of Corporate Dining & Retail Development). In the midst of COVID, Eat’n Park turned heads by opening a new location in Butler, PA. Jeff called the decision a “leap of faith” but said the decision showed employees and customers that Eat’n Park was strong and focused on growth. Eat’n Park’s Smiley Cookies debuted in the 1980s as a way to bring joy to guests, especially children. Originally hand-decorated with bright icing and a signature smile, these cookies quickly became a beloved brand symbol. Today, they are shared nationwide, spreading Eat’n Park’s message of kindness and hospitality. QUOTES“There are challenges (with working with family). There are challenges in any business, but there are a lot more positives.” (Jeff) “During COVID it was really nice having family there. Dealing with what we went through. That was the one thing that you really needed people that you trusted and respected and, in many cases, loved.” (Jeff) “When new management comes in I always tell them one thing: You can never have too much fun in the role.” (Jeff) “My mother was always talking about treating people the way you want them to treat you.” (Jeff) “(The Smiley Cookies) are all about creating a smile. That’s what it’s led into.” (Jeff) “Community involvement is a big part of our culture and a big part of who we are.” (Jeff) “A lot of our focus right now is continuing to invest in the brand – a 75-year-old brand.” (Jeff) “What we have to do in the restaurant industry is anticipating the guest needs. What are they going to want tomorrow, next week, next year?” (Jeff) “A lot of our innovation is about helping our team members have a more rewarding job and career. You can never forget about the importance of our team members.” (Jeff) | |||
| Clara Paye – Founder & CEO of UNiTE Food | 13 févr. 2025 | 00:44:19 | |
UNiTE Food is a Yorba Linda, California-based company that produces globally inspired protein bars. The brand offers unique flavors such as Churro, Mexican Hot Chocolate, and PB & Jelly, aiming to bring diversity to the wellness industry. Each bar provides around 10 grams of protein and is gluten-free, catering to health-conscious consumers seeking both nutrition and nostalgic tastes. Clara often relied on protein bars during her busy career but found the available flavors uninspiring. Drawing from her diverse culinary background, she recognized a gap in the market for culturally diverse flavors. Clara’s father is an entrepreneur. Her family immigrated from Sudan when she was five years old. When they arrived in the United States, her father started a plumbing supply distribution business, which is the business Clara worked in earlier in her career. The idea for UNiTE was something Clara started thinking about in 2018 or 2019 while she was still working in her family’s plumbing business. She began experimenting with different recipes and products in her kitchen in the early days of the pandemic in 2020. Clara often visits ethnic markets to learn about new flavors for new products. She also studied flavors and what people were eating when she traveled abroad. QUOTES“If I’m anything, I’m a very curious person. I’m curious about how the world works and I’m curious about why segments of the population aren’t being served.” (Clara) “If you focus on your customers, they will reward you with loyalty. And if they reward you with loyalty, your revenue will grow. If you create value, why would somebody leave you?” (Clara) “For me, it was about making sure we were taking care of our customers. That was the winning strategy. It sounds really simple, but it’s way harder to execute.” (Clara) “Business is a framework. Once you understand product liability, you understand how to insure against it. You learn about the certifying bodies in your industry. It’s hard and it’s not (hard).” (Clara) “It’s really about building relationships. Mutually beneficial relationships.” (Clara) “When you’re over 40 and you created a new business, you’re usually not doing it for money, you’re doing it to try to make the world a better place.” (Clara) “I wanted to find common ground. Let’s find flavors that will resonate with lots of people.” (Clara) “The essence of the UNiTE brand is to seek to understand and seek to find common ground instead of focusing on how we’re different.” (Clara) “At the end of the day, consumers want authenticity and they want brands that create products that are meaningful to them. (Clara) “I don’t really worry about copycat brands. I worry more when they stop copying me.” (Clara) TRANSCRIPT00:01.49 vigorbranding All right. Hello, everyone. Welcome to Fork Tales. I’m Michael Pavone. Our guest today is Clara Paye. And I’ve known Clara for a long time. ah She is from Unite Foods. ah Unite’s line of nutritious bars are built around the concept of global flavors, but also comfort foods. Clara has started a brand that’s redefining what protein and nutrition bars can be, and I’m happy to have her as a guest. Clara, welcome.
00:25.55 Clara Paye _ UNiTE Thanks, Michael. Good to be here.
00:27.85 vigorbranding So again, I know you, I think pretty well, and I’m excited to excited for this. This will be fun. So um I want to go back. I mean, you have a fascinating story. So before we get into Unite, I want to talk about you. How did you, you know, where where do you come from? Where do you, where did you work? You know, talk a little bit about what got you, got you here.
00:46.86 Clara Paye _ UNiTE Well, it’s definitely not been a linear path. It’s been really a path led by my own curiosity in the world. And so I think if I’m anything, I’m a very curious person. I’m curious how the world works. I’m curious why, you know, segments of the population aren’t being served. So my journey really started, you know, undergrad, I went to USC and I really went undeclared and thought I but wanted to be a lawyer and.
01:10.72 Clara Paye _ UNiTE got into one political science class and I was like, no, I definitely don’t want to do this. And so kind of was looking around like what else is out there, found the business school at USC, and more importantly, found the entrepreneurship program, which was number one in the nation at the time. And, you know, and I knew I didn’t want to study accounting or finance, and that’s what business was to me in my mind back then. And finding this entrepreneurship route really like kind of opened up the world to me and was like a light bulb.
01:34.45 Clara Paye _ UNiTE you know My dad is an entrepreneur. and We immigrated from Africa and the Sudan when I was five years old. And in Africa, he had an automotive parts distribution business. And when he immigrated to the U.S., he started a plumbing manufacturing and hardware distribution business. And so, you know, having a dad that had kind of modeled entrepreneurship, it was demystified for me. And so I was like, oh, that’s really interesting. You know, I’ve been an entrepreneur kind of since I was a little girl, whether, you know, the classic lemonade stand or side popsicles or, you know, drawing pictures and trying to sell them to my aunts. Like, you know, I always had that entrepreneurial
02:07.53 Clara Paye _ UNiTE start and you know funny and but like at USC I remember them taking a poll of all the entrepreneurship kids and how many of them had like a lemonade stand or something similar as a kid and it was like 95% of the class raised their hand right like it’s something almost innate where you know that entrepreneurship bug grabs you was even a little kid and
02:15.32 vigorbranding Mm
02:24.37 Clara Paye _ UNiTE And so, you know, going into the entrepreneurship program, it was kind of like and equated to like Ted Talks, where you just got to like hear and listen to these really successful entrepreneurs that had launched and they were normal people with good ideas that they just implemented.
02:36.22 vigorbranding hmm.
02:38.93 Clara Paye _ UNiTE And I thought I would you know be an entrepreneur straight out of undergrad. I wrote a business plan um and for the apparel industry back then. this is I’ll date myself, but I graduated in 1999 and in 1998, 99. I wrote a business plan for plus size clothing for teenage girls. So I saw that there was this huge segment of the population where kids were kind of, you know, Americans were growing in size. and there weren’t really anything fashionable for young girls to wear if they were plus size. They had to shop, you know, especially in jeans, they had to start in the, you know, shop in the women’s Husky department, women’s department or the boy’s Husky department. And it really wasn’t anything fashionable. And I wrote this great business plan. All my professors told me to do it. And like the only person I knew that had any money was my dad.
03:21.66 Clara Paye _ UNiTE you know, being 21 years old and or, you know, barely 21 and asking him to fund, you know, I needed like $30,000 back then to launch this business. And my I was going to do it with my best friend whose father had just invested in the jeans manufacturing plant.
03:34.66 Clara Paye _ UNiTE She had done the entrepreneurship program the year before. It was like this home run idea. The internet was just coming online and we were going to do it all online. We didn’t need storefronts. You know, we’re kind of kind of revolutionize all of these things.
03:44.94 Clara Paye _ UNiTE And my dad’s like, what? Huh? Like watch yourself humming products. Yeah.
03:48.78 vigorbranding Yeah.
03:50.42 Clara Paye _ UNiTE Like, this is a business that already exists. And he just didn’t see it, didn’t understand. But it’s it’s ironic that like that business would grow on to be like that segment specifically, um where I did all my research at this mall, like, went on to become a billion dollar business, like Torrid went into the same free mall with the same concept. And so that was kind of like always in the back of my mind, my entire career. So from age 20 to now, like, gosh, like, why I should have done that, like, I should have done something like that, you know, why didn’t I try and um I’m telling a really long part of the story so we can edit this, but it’s really like, you know, for me, it was really about that early experience in entrepreneurship that I held on to, but then I would go on.
04:22.93 vigorbranding Oh, it’s great.
04:29.89 Clara Paye _ UNiTE and work in cosmetics, worked for advertising agencies, you know, um and then eventually my dad lured me into the family business, which was like, you know, about five years after college, I wanted to get my MBA and he said, hey, I’ll make you a deal. You and your best friend want to come work for me, get your and MBAs and I’ll pay for them. And you just have to stay the time that you’re studying. And, you know, we did this executive MBA program where we worked our nine to five and then we went to school from like six to 10.
04:53.31 Clara Paye _ UNiTE And those are long days, but they were really fun because I got to take what I was learning in the MBA program and immediately apply it to my family business, which was, again, the plumbing and hardware distribution business. And so not that I was in love with plumbing and hardware, like, trust me, if I never see another supply line in my life, it’ll be too soon. But um it was really about this unique experience that I got to learn and apply, learn and apply. And it was just Really? um Really what set me up for like, you know in that curiosity to like really make an impact in my family business Where you know, sometimes when you join a family business you get told well, this is how we’ve always done it So this is why you have to do it this way and for me I got to kind of redefine everything Because of this MBA program that I was doing and my dad trusted, you know, he always had a high regard for education And so was like, okay. Well, yeah, let’s try it and really got you know got in and
05:45.11 vigorbranding That’s fantastic. i mean You bring up a really interesting point, though. Being a so a sibling of an entrepreneur, you you kind of do realize, or you maybe you don’t realize that it’s it’s not easy, but you you know it’s it’s doable, right? If you watch your father do it, like my father had a couple small sporting goods stores. So I thought, well, if you want to start a business, you just go out and start it. You just do it. and You know, my story is I’ve never been smart enough to know what I can’t do. So I’m like, Oh yeah, I can do that. And just, you know, and sometimes you pass, sometimes you fail, but you know, it’s like, Oh, I can try that. Oh yeah, I’ll do that. So, but, but I think our parents really do make it easier for us if they’ve done that, you know, and you sort of, I don’t want to say you take it for granted, but it’s sort of like, it seems doable. It seems attainable, you know, and next thing you know, you you’ve got something special. And I’ll say this, it had to be interesting, difficult, and maybe very educational for you.
06:34.52 vigorbranding ah being a young woman in and the and the plumbing supply distribution business. I mean, what was that like?
06:40.78 Clara Paye _ UNiTE ah You know, it was it’s a very old industry. It’s you know very much like there’s very little product innovation. And so for me, being a curious person, I was always trying to learn. I always wanted to go to like plumbing school. So like I could like learn about the products a little bit more because they’re actually really complex. And if you ever go down a hardware store aisle and you go down the plumbing fittings or the plumbing section, I mean, there’s literally thousands and thousands of SKUs and so many different parts to like toilets and you know faucets and it’s it’s a very confusing um you know you have to have like a lot of deep knowledge in the industry to really make an impact so for me you know i knew i was never going to have that right what i could bring to the table was really an outside the box way of thinking about this industry like you know we created the company’s first website and started selling you know online and really trying to
07:28.80 Clara Paye _ UNiTE Um, quantify customer experience, right? Like it wasn’t just about like place, you know, filling orders. It was like, what was the experience of that order for your customer? And so I’ve always been a customer centric leader. So I think it’s because I came up through marketing and entrepreneurship. You know, I really care about the customer and I really care about like the person that’s opening the box, whatever that box is, you know, and so.
07:51.58 Clara Paye _ UNiTE For me, it was all about aligning the business to be customer-focused, because my thesis was, if you focus on your customers, they will reward you with loyalty. And if they reward you with loyalty, your revenue will grow.
08:01.84 Clara Paye _ UNiTE right It’s a win-win.
08:02.46 vigorbranding mean
08:03.15 Clara Paye _ UNiTE If you create value, why would somebody leave you? So it’s when you’re not creating value and you’re creating problems for the customer that you know you have that attrition.
08:13.25 Clara Paye _ UNiTE And so for me, it was really about um making sure that we were taking care of our customers. And and that was the winning strategy. I mean, it sounds really simple, but it’s way harder to execute when you get to scale.
08:26.05 vigorbranding That’s great. I mean, it makes total sense. So basically, you do all your own plumbing now, is that what you’re saying?
08:31.81 Clara Paye _ UNiTE not at all
08:32.01 vigorbranding Yeah, I knew about it. Okay, so now let’s jump into something that I know you’re very proud of and should be. the that You founded Unite, okay? and And so let’s talk about that. You founded in March of 2020, right?
08:44.85 vigorbranding In the middle of that thing called the pandemic with COVID. um but Obviously, that was a part of the story. That’s what sort of infused the story. Can you talk a little bit about that?
08:53.69 Clara Paye _ UNiTE Yeah. So, you know you know, I’d been ideating on it for like probably a year and a half before that and really trying, you know, it was working in the plumbing business at my, you know, and the family business that I was kind of like stuck behind my desk. And especially when I became a mom, like I was always just like looking for quick fuel to get me through my day. And that was like kind of when I had the epiphany for Unite and really our main point of differentiation is that we use global flavors.
09:15.38 Clara Paye _ UNiTE And so I had this unique experience, again, just just like the plus sized clothing where I was like, wait a minute, like there’s this whole population of people out there, like half the population are immigrants, people like me, or people that are just like really interested in other cultures and really interested in other foods.
09:31.28 Clara Paye _ UNiTE You know, I live in LA, like there’s, you can eat Thai, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, whatever you want, any time of day you want, you know, it’s all, you know, and that’s what makes America unique is that we are this melting pot of cultures.
09:38.69 vigorbranding Yeah. Yeah.
09:42.73 Clara Paye _ UNiTE And it very similarly, I saw this demographic shift where, you know, America was just going to continue to grow in, in multiculturalism. And so I was like, okay, if you’re in wellness and you are diagnosed with something like for me, it was a gluten intolerance. Like, and you go and try to find diet compliant food and you go to the shelf and like nothing resonates with you. Like that’s a huge miss. And so I think it was because
10:08.08 vigorbranding but
10:08.18 Clara Paye _ UNiTE You know, i I’m not, everybody that has created protein bars up to that point wasn’t diverse, didn’t have the life experience I had. So I just kind of used my own life experience it to develop it.
10:18.38 Clara Paye _ UNiTE And I developed them in my kitchen, like really, like, you know, as I got my cuisine on out and was like, what would I put in my protein bars? And for me, it was like almond butter and dates and, you know, let’s sweeten it with all natural things.
10:25.68 vigorbranding Mm hmm.
10:28.41 Clara Paye _ UNiTE And I i can’t use sugar, alcohols or Stevia. Like I i just, they’re not palatable to me. So I just use natural things. and literally googled what do nutritionists say should be in a protein bar and like made those my macros like it’s not that hard you know you don’t have to like spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to figure it out and um created my first recipes and found a co-packer to make them and I knew you know because I didn’t want any food liability I wanted a really strong co-packer to be the producer for them found one that ah you know where they saw the vision they understood what we were about and supported us and got our product launched and
11:05.31 Clara Paye _ UNiTE You know, Expo West was this trade show, you know, it was a trade show in the food industry. It’s the largest natural products convention in the entire world. And if anybody hasn’t been to it, just imagine seven convention centers all smashed together in Anaheim, hundreds of thousands of people, like 3000 plus exhibitors. It’s literally and figuratively like Disneyland. Like it’s just, it’s a zoo. It’s, there’s so many people. And we got our little 10 by 10 booth and at the, you know, they have this like new products part of natural expo that opens a day before or used to.
11:35.43 Clara Paye _ UNiTE And we got our booth set up and we were ready to rock.
11:37.30 vigorbranding Mm hmm.
11:37.51 Clara Paye _ UNiTE We were going to go show our bars. We had this whole warehouse full of new bars to show buyers.
11:39.71 vigorbranding and
11:41.83 Clara Paye _ UNiTE And that’s how it’s going to get people excited. And then the pandemic. And that was the first thing to get canceled. And literally we got this call like shows not going to happen. So break down your booth.
11:51.86 Clara Paye _ UNiTE And you know, and it was like such a wild time.
11:52.43 vigorbranding Yep.
11:55.64 Clara Paye _ UNiTE um And people were really, you know, unsure of what was going to happen. And, you know, ah brands were not able to get into stores to pitch or any buyers, everything kind of went on hold because every grocery store was worried about safety for their employees and how to keep cleaning products on shelf and Lysol wipes.
12:13.52 Clara Paye _ UNiTE And like nobody was really thinking about like protein bars, right?
12:16.49 vigorbranding Right, right.
12:16.43 Clara Paye _ UNiTE Like we’re all trying to, you know, that’s what like, I think we all were baking banana bread every day in this power now and like, you know, consoling ourselves with chips and margaritas at, you know, noon. so
12:26.31 vigorbranding Yeah. Well, I remember like for us, I mean, you know, one of my companies is Quench, which is a CPG food and beverage. I said, you know, COVID was truly the greatest sampling program in the face of the earth, food and beverage. If you made a product at that time, if you had an established product, you people bought it, people ate it, they put in their pantry, they stacked in their shells. I mean, it was phenomenal time for food. I mean, unfortunately, it was you were too new, right? You couldn’t even take advantage of it. You didn’t even get a chance to get out of the starting gate. so That’s how to be extremely disappointing. But I think it’s amazing too. Like, okay, so you you come from one industry and and you learn a lot just in business and dealing with people from one industry. But then you you applied to this startup that you didn’t, you’ve never really, you were never in the food business. So you don’t learn how to be a manufacturer, you had to learn about safety, you had to learn about ingredients, legal and and everything and anything. I mean, it’s just, ah it’s an amazing undertaking. How did you how did you learn so much?
13:21.18 Clara Paye _ UNiTE You know, like business is a framework. So once you understand product liability, you understand how to ensure against it, right? And you learn that, you know, you have to look, what are the certifying bodies in your industry, right?
13:35.40 Clara Paye _ UNiTE Like in, you know, for electrical companies, it’s like UL listing, you know, in food, it’s SQF.
13:35.85 vigorbranding Mm hmm. Mm hmm.
13:40.84 Clara Paye _ UNiTE And it’s not like the information isn’t that hard to find. So I think it’s like, you know, once you have a framework of, it’s, you know, the product is a widget almost, right? Like how you deal with Lowe’s is how you deal with Target.
13:49.40 vigorbranding Mm
13:52.55 Clara Paye _ UNiTE Like it’s a big box.
13:52.83 vigorbranding hmm.
13:53.59 Clara Paye _ UNiTE They care about many of the same things, right? You have to understand what’s going to happen on the back end of your business. You have to understand how to get that product there on time and in full. And that’s what matters to them.
14:04.49 Clara Paye _ UNiTE And so I, you know, it’s hard and it’s not. And so for me, I’ve always really relied on my network, Michael, like, like if I don’t know the answer, I know somebody that I know must know the answer.
14:16.44 vigorbranding Mm hmm.
14:17.09 Clara Paye _ UNiTE So I spent a lot of time. I don’t want to say networking, but I think it’s really about building relationships, like mutual like mutually beneficial relationships with people, trust.
14:26.75 vigorbranding Sure, trust.
14:29.50 Clara Paye _ UNiTE And when I got into the food space, I was like, I just need to great advisors around me. I need people.
14:33.78 vigorbranding Mm hmm.
14:33.82 Clara Paye _ UNiTE And I didn’t want like consultants. I wanted people who were also running their businesses, who were going in the trenches, doing it with in in real time.
14:38.08 vigorbranding Sure. Skin the game. Yep.
14:41.79 Clara Paye _ UNiTE and so you know, having a ah YPO forum of YPO, you know, food CPG people was like one of the ways that I accomplished that and like really creating a forum of people around me that were doing the same things as I was.
14:50.42 vigorbranding Mm
14:56.01 Clara Paye _ UNiTE And, you know, there’s a lot of symbiotic um experience there. And we all got to go through COVID together. So it was something I did early on, you know, it was like grabbing people who wanted to go on this journey with me.
15:02.72 vigorbranding hmm. Mm hmm.
15:06.56 Clara Paye _ UNiTE And so, You know you’re I think networking is like kind of like a bad word sometimes like people think it’s like you’re using people when you say networking but you’re doing networking right you’re actually at creating value for other people first right and that out it works.
15:13.24 vigorbranding who yeah
15:20.16 vigorbranding That’s right. Yeah. Absolutely. All right. So now let’s talk. You created the, the you had a product, you you got shut down and covered. So let’s talk about the Unite name. You created a brand and I’m a big brand guy, you know that. I love brands and and I love what you did here. I love the name and I’m not just saying that because you’re here, but this is something I did not know. I read an article and I read about the I in Unite. I should have looked and realized that the lowercase I, but to talk about the brand and how you came up with the name.
15:45.47 Clara Paye _ UNiTE Yeah, I mean, so for me is all about that what I was trying to do. So this is like the mission part of like this journey when like you’re over 40 and you’re creating new business. Usually you’re not doing it just for money. You’re really doing it because you feel like something’s missing in the world and you want to make the world a better place. At least that’s my journey.
16:01.60 Clara Paye _ UNiTE And for me, it was like, how can I use food as this instrument of inclusion to improve the lives of people, see people who haven’t been seen, welcome them into wellness, right? And kind of create cultural bridges, right? Where like somebody who I think food is has this unique way of binding people, right? Like it’s the cultural equivalent of bringing your, you know,
16:23.95 Clara Paye _ UNiTE your dish to a potluck and like you know kind of like do you like it you know kind of like yeah having that like you know there’s a moment where you’re like are you sure it’s kind of a little strange or like you know when when people used to come to my home and like be like you know my mom made this thing you don’t have to eat it it’s you know you might not like it and then people loving it and you’re like oh Okay, it’s good. Like it’s safe. Like everyone’s accepted now. And so I think for me, it was like how, you know, food can, can also divide people. But if people make fun of somebody’s food or make fun of flavors, you know, and I think it also can unite. And so I wanted to use it as like, you know, let’s, let’s find common ground. Let’s find flavors that like will resonate with lots of people. And so like the flavors we choose typically are not just like country specific. They’re like region specific.
17:04.98 Clara Paye _ UNiTE So like, you know, churros are eaten in Spain, in Mexico, and like all over Latin America, right? Baklava is eaten in North Africa, in Greece, in Russia, in Croatia, right?
17:15.03 Clara Paye _ UNiTE Bubble tea, which sounds like just an Asian, Asian flavor. And yes, it was born in Taiwan, but you know, like but the British drink milk with tea. the in Indian people drink milk with tea, and the Middle East drink milk with tea.
17:25.54 Clara Paye _ UNiTE Like those flavors are, can resonate with lots of different people.
17:29.23 vigorbranding Yeah.
17:29.53 Clara Paye _ UNiTE So, and then there’s peanut butter and jelly, and that’s the one where people are like,
17:31.64 vigorbranding Yeah.
17:32.95 Clara Paye _ UNiTE huh like you know that’s like that’s not global but it’s like my american heritage is just as important and so i want all people to feel represented and the reason the eye is small and as i think because if you’re trying to connect two sides you yourself have to get smaller to understand the other side and so that you you know to understand the other you know and we live in such a time of division and so like really having a name like unites like it’s really the essence of the brand
17:37.39 vigorbranding yeah
17:58.39 Clara Paye _ UNiTE is to, you know, ah seek to understand and seek to find common ground and instead of like how we’re different.
18:05.96 vigorbranding I love it. i mean You obviously have a propensity for for marketing. it’s it’s It’s very smart and very sound, the thinking behind it. and and I’ve had the products that are fantastic. and again I’m not just saying that they’re your your products are absolutely delicious, so you should be very, very proud of that.
18:21.31 vigorbranding um you know and now So we talk about the flavors, so ah we do a food trends presentation every year and we always come up with all these funky flavors and and we we I shouldn’t say funky, we we we learn about things that are popping in different parts of the world and starting to you know bubble up and and and ah you know we we try to grab onto them, I mean all of us as manufacturers, as restaurants, as ah marketers And we try to understand these flavors and how to bring them forth and and introduce something fresh. how do How do you go about finding flavors? How do you go about deciding what the next flavor is going to be?
18:54.83 Clara Paye _ UNiTE it’s really intuitive for me but like you know my my hero flavor is churro and like that one was really you know born out of you know I live near Disneyland I live like 15 minutes away and I have small kids and so we were always at Disneyland always the line at the churro cart was kind of like around the corner right and like churro was like definitely this very familiar flavor and like churros are you know they’re eaten they’re They’re not just different for different sake. Many people have had a churro, whether it’s at a fair or at Disneyland or at a carnival. Churro was like not that um outside the box for most people, and it was very approachable. and so like That Disneyland car, just like looking at the lines, I was like, yeah, that could be a really good flavor. How come nobody you know hasn’t really done that? and then
19:44.35 Clara Paye _ UNiTE you know, I would visit ethnic markets a lot to look at the flavors.
19:47.44 vigorbranding Sure.
19:47.62 Clara Paye _ UNiTE So I go to Hispanic markets, I go to Korean markets, I go to Japanese markets, you know, I live in an area again, where I’m blessed by diversity. And so I study, you know, when I travel, what are people eating?
19:59.01 Clara Paye _ UNiTE What, you know, what are people, you know, what do people enjoy? And I really, I mean I the first flavors are really like things that I loved so I just wanted to create things you know flavors and then I tested them on my friends and I probably Michael I probably made like 15 or 20 different flavors before I started right like and kind of like chose the heroes from um the ones that I made and in my kitchen.
20:17.81 vigorbranding Mm-hmm. Now, is there one that you you loved and thought, oh, everyone’s gonna love this and didn’t make it? Is there a flavor that you kind of, what is it?
20:26.76 Clara Paye _ UNiTE Yeah it was a ah green tea matcha
20:30.55 vigorbranding Uh-uh.
20:30.44 Clara Paye _ UNiTE flavor and so but green tea powder sometimes can be fishy and it’s like sounds so weird but like it just didn’t work in in scale right and so and there are macho bars out there but I never think that they taste great and so you know I wanted it to have like good product integrity and so like that was like a
20:35.42 vigorbranding Okay.
20:39.37 vigorbranding Not it.
20:45.81 vigorbranding Mm-hmm.
20:48.56 Clara Paye _ UNiTE you know, one that like I thought would be, you know, cause if you, if you look at the Starbucks menu, like ah so many, you know, those, those are great flavor cues too. Like, you know, Starbucks spends a lot of time in flavor development. And so you can just, you can take cues from adjacent industries.
21:01.68 vigorbranding Sure. We got to work with a lot over the years ah through Quench. We worked with the Hershey Company and we worked with the scientists. And I was always blown away because we’d go in the, and back, this would be like early 90s, we’d go in these rooms or they’d have to swipe a card for the door to open. It seemed very like,
21:17.81 vigorbranding Uh, sign sci-fi, you know, and it would it be lab technicians and they’d put drops and they’d be like, here, taste that. What does it taste like? I’m like, well, I taste apple pie. They’re like, wait for it. I’m like, Oh, I taste whipped cream. Wait for it. Oh, I can not taste crust. Like they could do this. I mean, it was like better living through chemistry. They could do all this stuff.
21:36.54 vigorbranding and what it came down to obviously was and this is what is so hard with what you do is now you have to source the ingredients now you have to make sure it’s not a chemical thing and then you have to understand can you can you afford that flavoring at a price point that will be palatable to the consumer so there’s so much involved in all of what you do yeah
21:56.81 Clara Paye _ UNiTE There is so much like, look, all business is hard, but the food business is particularly hard, right? Because you’re, it’s a living, breathing thing, right? And for me, it came down to simplicity. Like I always wanted simple ingredients um because I wanted people to be able to understand what was going into the bar, right? Like I wanted it to be real food and natural. And um so when you have those kinds of like,
22:22.56 Clara Paye _ UNiTE Barriers, you know, it’s it helps you and it hurts you right? Like I can’t put in a bunch of processing You know like many large companies can because that’s not the brand value that I’m trying to create or the kind of product I’m trying to create.
22:30.08 vigorbranding Right. Mhm.
22:34.50 Clara Paye _ UNiTE So yeah, it’s very hard um You know, we do get a lot of those scientists taking pictures at our booth every year at all the Expos and so people and we have been copied, you know and that’s like just anytime you’re successful at something people are gonna copy you and so
22:45.84 vigorbranding Sure. Mhm.
22:50.21 Clara Paye _ UNiTE But I think at the end of the day, consumers want authenticity. They want you know brands that are creating products that are meaningful to them and will reward those brands. So I don’t really worry about like copycats. I worry more about when they stop copying me.
23:07.91 vigorbranding but you know and But to your point, and you know weve we’ve been doing a food trends report for over 15 years, and what you are doing and and how you’re doing it is very on trend. It’s not easy. It’s not inexpensive. i mean it’s ah it’s ah you know you there’s you could You could have cut corners along the way on your product, but you don’t do that. I just think that that’s going to pay dividends in the long run. i think that’s such a It’s hard to stick to your ethos, but I think you do a fantastic job of that. so I think it’s something to be proud of. and so and My next thing is, I did not know this, but the I in Unite stands for invite. and I did not realize on the back of every bar there’s an email address that you can people can send directly to you for suggestions on new flavors. Have you have you learned anything from these? Have you gotten anything interesting in the emails?
23:52.30 Clara Paye _ UNiTE Yes, I love those emails, like those emails come to me. And so I get to interact with the people that write those emails. And, you know, the most meaningful ones are when people will give me a flavor suggestion, but then they’ll also say, thank you for making a bar for us.
24:07.73 Clara Paye _ UNiTE You know, thank you. And it’s exactly what I wanted to do.
24:09.63 vigorbranding That’s super cool.
24:10.64 Clara Paye _ UNiTE when I, when I set out was like, make the invisible feel seen.
24:12.05 vigorbranding Yeah.
24:14.77 Clara Paye _ UNiTE And you know, I know what it’s like to not feel seen. You know, I know what it’s like to like, kind of be in the shadows, like being a woman in the plumbing industry. Perfect example, right? Like you don’t really belong here or you don’t like, you know, somebody that looks like me typically doesn’t work in plumbing, right?
24:29.33 Clara Paye _ UNiTE like It’s a very old, old, you know, antiquated kind of industry. And so like when I get those emails, I get really excited and people do have some great ideas and ideas of like things that we’ve actually developed, you know, and just haven’t launched. And, you know, so it’s fun to know that like, it is also on trend for people.
24:49.00 vigorbranding That’s fantastic. So I mean, ah um I’m being italian Italian. My wife’s Greek. So yeah, yeah, her mother makes us baklava. So it’s phenomenal. So I love that. I’m really proud to see that you have a baklava in your in your flavors. So you have you have baklava, you have peanut butter and jelly, you have chiro, bubble tea, Mexican hot chocolate. What’s your what’s your favorite?
25:09.34 Clara Paye _ UNiTE You know, it’s like asking me which my favorite kid is.
25:12.05 vigorbranding ah We all have one.
25:11.94 Clara Paye _ UNiTE um i and I mean, is our hero.
25:12.61 vigorbranding Come on. We all have one. On any given day, we all have one. A favorite kid.
25:18.32 Clara Paye _ UNiTE And churro was like the first bar where I was like, okay, we really have something.
25:19.02 vigorbranding Uh-huh. That’s the baby.
25:21.72 Clara Paye _ UNiTE Yeah. But I really also very much like baklava. And it’s similar to churro in that, you know, it’s got kind of like some of the the same kind of spices with the cinnamon.
25:28.18 vigorbranding Mm-hmm.
25:29.41 Clara Paye _ UNiTE But baklava has never been done outside of baklava.
25:31.48 vigorbranding Mm-hmm.
25:32.33 Clara Paye _ UNiTE Like, think about it, Michael. Like, you’ve never seen a baklava ice cream. You’ve never seen a baklava cracker.
25:35.23 vigorbranding Nope.
25:36.56 Clara Paye _ UNiTE Like, you’ve never seen a baklava popcorn. Right? Like it was very unique.
25:40.80 vigorbranding Yeah.
25:41.16 Clara Paye _ UNiTE And, you know, when I, before I launched, you know, many of the, the manufacturing partners I met with in the beginning were like, these price flavors are too strange. Like nobody’s going to buy these and like to be, you know, have come full circle and and be like, no, they’re great.
25:54.00 Clara Paye _ UNiTE And like Baklava just won a good housekeeping award this year when they’re, you know, best snack award. Churro won the same award last year.
25:59.19 vigorbranding Awesome.
26:00.98 Clara Paye _ UNiTE So it’s like, it’s incredibly validating when, you know, people. like like the product and like, you know, um appreciate it. And it’s got organic honey in it. It’s just really tasty bar.
26:12.34 vigorbranding That’s great. Well, like I said, you’re the products are amazing. And in a way, I like i look at these flavors and in a way they are they’re kind of all comfort foods, too, right? I mean, they’re, they’re, yeah, they’re all international flavors, but they’re almost like international comfort flavors, you know, it just it kind of feels that way.
26:28.40 Clara Paye _ UNiTE Well, they’re nostalgic flavors.
26:30.16 vigorbranding Yeah.
26:30.11 Clara Paye _ UNiTE So they’re foods that you ate in childhood.
26:32.21 vigorbranding Right.
26:32.26 Clara Paye _ UNiTE And so that was also really important to me. That was also one of the barometers is like childhood flavors.
26:36.76 vigorbranding Perfect.
26:38.45 Clara Paye _ UNiTE And ironically, I mean, I didn’t develop these for kids, but like kids love our bars and like, duh, they’re childhood flavors, right? Like they’re really for adults, but you know, so we’ve had this like wide range of like consumer interest in our, in our products. And so for me, it’s like about taking you back to kind of like a simpler time. I think, you know, health food specifically is sometimes punitive. Like, Oh, I don’t really like this mushroom powder, but I’m going to drink it because like, i my you know, my,
27:03.59 Clara Paye _ UNiTE podcast said that I’m going to get muscles if I drink it. you know and I’m like more on the other side of wellness. We’re like, let’s make it fun and let’s make it like food you want to eat, not food you have to eat.
27:09.80 vigorbranding Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, that’s great. All right. Well, let’s have some fun here. So, you know, being the research guys that we are and the marketing guys where we came up with our own flavors. So we decided to go around the world. I want your opinion on if these are going to be winners or not. So we’ll start in India, a gulab jambu. It’s very popular dessert. It’s often served during celebrations. It’s fried dough soaked in a rosewater syrup, often garnished with almonds and cashews.
27:40.04 Clara Paye _ UNiTE 10 out of 10. I think that would like a home run flavor. I’ve actually, you know, my Indian friends have also suggested ah exact flavor and it’s always kind of been in my mind.
27:45.01 vigorbranding Yeah.
27:48.94 Clara Paye _ UNiTE The rosewater is the one that’s like, can be polarizing. So, you know, we try to have things that are like, you know, broad appeal, but yeah, I think 10 out of 10 would be a great flavor.
27:57.57 vigorbranding Plus, I’ll say this, I hate to be the total American here, but pronunciation can also be a barrier to people buying something if they can’t if they can’t figure out how to say it.
28:04.52 Clara Paye _ UNiTE For now, right?
28:06.08 vigorbranding All right, now we’ll head to Spain, a creamy caramel flan.
28:09.66 Clara Paye _ UNiTE I love flan and I think flan is another one of those foods that’s mistaken for like just Latin Americans because lots of people eat flan or you know it’s called sometimes creme caramel it’s called like different things in other regions of the world you know so yeah another great flavor you guys are good at this don um don’t start a bar company Michael.
28:15.09 vigorbranding Mm hmm.
28:26.72 vigorbranding yeah Yeah, yeah. We would never if we, you know, they’re yours. These are all yours if you want to do them. So you have some friends, we have some employees in Brazil. So um Bolo de Rolo. It’s a light sponge cake. It’s rolled up with a layer of tangy guava jam.
28:43.47 Clara Paye _ UNiTE This one I’ve never heard of, I’ve never had.
28:45.94 vigorbranding right
28:46.23 Clara Paye _ UNiTE I’ve not not been to Brazil, so it really piqued my interest. I love guavas. I think tropical fruits, you know, we see that in beverage now.
28:54.85 vigorbranding Right.
28:55.48 Clara Paye _ UNiTE You know, there’s all kinds of great beverages that have popped up with tropical fruit flavors.
28:56.09 vigorbranding Mm hmm.
29:00.70 Clara Paye _ UNiTE And definitely in terms of what global flavor trends, guava I think is still underrated because I love guavas.
29:04.97 vigorbranding Mm hmm.
29:07.99 Clara Paye _ UNiTE So yeah, I think, you know, it’d be interesting to to get the um the sponge cake kind of consistency in a bar because bars tend to be a little bit drier and a little bit harder to to make soft because water stability issues.
29:20.76 Clara Paye _ UNiTE But I think that’s super intrigued. I want to go to Brazil, so that’s on my list.
29:24.27 vigorbranding Yeah, there you go. There’s an excuse for R and&D. It’s a write-off. um you know Yeah, it’s ah that that’s that’s that’s fun. OK, so we go to Italy ah for some almond biscotti.
29:37.61 Clara Paye _ UNiTE I mean, I love biscotti, but I think if you’re craving biscotti, eat a biscotti.
29:41.08 vigorbranding Yeah, I agree.
29:41.18 Clara Paye _ UNiTE you know
29:42.08 vigorbranding Yeah, I don’t think that works in a bar, right?
29:43.73 Clara Paye _ UNiTE Well, you know like people tell me, like oh, you should make a hummus flavored bar. I’m like, what? Why don’t you just eat hummus?
29:49.24 vigorbranding Yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly.
29:50.94 Clara Paye _ UNiTE you know For me, it’s about taking some things. Because biscotti is not unhealthy, like typically. like you know If you had one, it’s like it’s fine.
29:55.05 vigorbranding No.
29:57.11 Clara Paye _ UNiTE It’s like a treat. So I typically try to take like higher calorie, higher density things to make them healthy and approachable.
30:02.75 vigorbranding oh
30:05.67 vigorbranding Yeah, you’re you’re almost bringing a dessert together to a degree, right?
30:05.58 Clara Paye _ UNiTE so i probably Exactly.
30:08.59 vigorbranding Yeah.
30:08.51 Clara Paye _ UNiTE a
30:09.42 vigorbranding Yeah, that totally makes sense. And you know what’s funny? You you just said something that that really kind of stuck with me. though The beverage industry does do a lot of flavors. And it’s really kind of accelerated. I mean, as a company, we were early on with with flavored beverages in the tea category.
30:24.27 vigorbranding And we were we had a brand that we worked with for like 15 years. We helped build what’s called Turkey Hill Iced Tea. Excuse me. And it was the first refrigerated tea. a lot of There was teas out there that were shelf-stable, but we were in the refrigerator. Well, the proliferation now of beverages in the refrigerator. You go to a convenience store with just walls of beverages. So there’s a lot of unique flavorings that you see popping up. And I guess that’s that would be a good place to see, I don’t know, what’s acceptable, right? like what are what are What are consumers interested in?
30:53.61 Clara Paye _ UNiTE Yeah, I think um it’s a good, again, like I got to take a lot of flavor cues from like a Starbucks or like, you know, what are people drinking?
31:01.08 vigorbranding yeah
31:02.11 Clara Paye _ UNiTE And like, what are the flavor cues in beverage that we can borrow from, right? Or we that can inform some of us. I think in beverage, it’s a little bit easier because the flavoring is just like props added to something versus like you’re trying to really create something authentic in food.
31:13.60 vigorbranding Yeah, yep, yep.
31:19.97 Clara Paye _ UNiTE But gosh, I’m just happy I have a shelf stable product. Like I can’t imagine distributing a refrigerated or frozen product.
31:25.52 vigorbranding Yeah, yeah, yeah.
31:26.11 Clara Paye _ UNiTE Like knowing what I know now, it’s like just a whole nother level of of anxiety.
31:30.73 vigorbranding Yeah, well in flavoring to own on that side is it’s amazing how if you had some foot, it’s not obvious as a flavor to like what happened to potato chips, right? So we have a snack food category of snack foods. I mean, adding just a new flavor a new fun. It’s it’s amazing how much velocity you get and how much traction we actually did it across the tuna category.
31:49.35 vigorbranding And you would think, you know, tuna, we started adding sriracha or different types of hot or or or Thai chili or, I mean, just all these kind of unique flavors.
31:54.20 Clara Paye _ UNiTE Mm
31:57.94 vigorbranding And it’s amazing how it can really ah get you more more ah shelf presence.
31:59.66 Clara Paye _ UNiTE hmm.
32:03.65 vigorbranding And it also then, ah it creates ah an atmosphere of trial. So it’s ah’s it’s an awful lot of fun for that too. So um so as an entrepreneur who who’s growing and developing a brand that’s still a relatively young brand, ah you just created it four years ago.
32:17.34 vigorbranding What are some of your biggest challenges?
32:20.85 Clara Paye _ UNiTE It’s sad to say, Michael, but like there’s a lot of predatory behavior for emerging brands in the food space, right?
32:26.57 vigorbranding he
32:26.47 Clara Paye _ UNiTE Where I think this industry like depends on the turn to a certain degree of like brands to fail, to come in to shoot their shot. And like when they fail, it doesn’t matter because there’s like so many other brands behind them trying to get in that same shelf space.
32:39.58 Clara Paye _ UNiTE So I think it’s just being the underdog. like If you look at the shelves that we’re on, we’re competing with behemoths, right? Like billion dollar brands, multi-billion dollar brands, like that control the entire food supply.
32:48.42 vigorbranding Mm hmm. Mm hmm.
32:51.38 Clara Paye _ UNiTE And we’re like on the same shelf and like, how can we actually compete to build brand awareness? Like, you know, so you just do it with a radical authenticity. You do it by creating value for the consumer, creating something different, creating a better product.
33:05.17 Clara Paye _ UNiTE But it’s really like having come from a larger company where like, you know, you have some kind of street cred because you are a larger and you’re eight It’s easier to grow a larger company, but to grow from scratch has been like humbling.
33:17.69 Clara Paye _ UNiTE like it’s There’s a lot of people who want to put their hand in your pocket, who want to you know take advantage of you, and you have to be astute.
33:18.13 vigorbranding Yeah.
33:24.66 Clara Paye _ UNiTE And again, you have to surround yourself with people that are smart, that will help you avoid the landline, help you clear those paths. but You know, I, um, I also started, um, a nonprofit called included for, you know, people of color in food CPG just because I feel very passionately it’s called included included CPG, um, for people to kind of like not make the same mistakes that I made or kind of try to pull it forward somehow by clearing the path for, you know, I don’t want people to, you know, make the mistakes that we, we’ve made or could have potentially made.
33:49.99 vigorbranding Mm hmm.
33:56.73 vigorbranding Mm hmm. That’s you’ve you’ve always been one to give back. And I think that’s very admirable. I mean, we were walking around. It was it was it this we were just talking about with the included CPG.
34:09.40 vigorbranding We were walking around. He was exposed. You had a special section and they they they don’t you had them donate space. What was that for?
34:16.71 Clara Paye _ UNiTE um Yes for emerging brands and no for included and so we do do that at the fancy food show and at Expo West every year and so we kind of run kind of a mini incubator accelerator For these brands and help them get that space and be ready to pitch and you know, you have to be market ready So it’s not like for a brand that’s like pre-launch it’s like, you know if you have some kind of like established brand presence and really hoping to elevate them to the next level because those trade shows are so expensive and it’s so primitive and so anything that we can do to
34:18.69 vigorbranding Oh, OK.
34:43.19 vigorbranding Yeah.
34:46.50 Clara Paye _ UNiTE Level the playing field to like help an emerging brand win is like I just it just lights me up I like it makes me so happy because These are the people improving the food systems.
34:57.16 Clara Paye _ UNiTE These are the people that are bringing healthy Products to market.
34:57.35 vigorbranding Right.
35:01.02 Clara Paye _ UNiTE These are the people who are you know, taking their family recipes and trying to share them with the world
35:06.90 vigorbranding Well, I mean, I admire you because you’re able to, I could see you walking into those shows and asking for them to give you all this space. And I know how you are. You do with a smile, but you’re pretty emphatic and I’m sure you always get your way.
35:19.64 vigorbranding Cause I know I sit in meetings with you and when I’m, and when I miss a meeting, I have to answer to you, but you do with a smile, but you always hold people accountable and you get what you want. And I do respect that. So sure.
35:29.41 Clara Paye _ UNiTE Well, I mean, it’s been a great partnership with New Hope and the Specialty Food Association. And it just, it aligns with their value. So they actually are great partners. And so it’s a, you know, and it’s a team. It’s not just me. There’s like five other founders on the leadership team have included. So, you know, we, we are really working hard to improve um the food systems.
35:51.19 vigorbranding what So what ah what do a lot of these folks, i mean thankfully they have you ah to sort of open up the door for them, literally to bring them into the into these shows. so like What do you see a mistake made by ah want to be entrepreneurs? what What do they do wrong? Or what do what do you think and in the brand creation process? What do you what do what do you think that they they do wrong a lot?
36:11.05 Clara Paye _ UNiTE I mean, it’s probably something we did wrong too, but it’s like trying to pretend you’re a big brand when you’re not, right? Like, yes, you can get on that shelf, but are you ready? Can you support it the same way a big brand does?
36:20.43 vigorbranding Mmhmm.
36:22.89 Clara Paye _ UNiTE Do you know all the levers to pull, right?
36:24.66 vigorbranding Mmhmm.
36:25.09 Clara Paye _ UNiTE like And it’s hard to say, like, it’s hard when the opportunity knocks not to take it, right?
36:30.71 vigorbranding Sure.
36:31.30 Clara Paye _ UNiTE So it’s like that discipline of knowing, you know, What is the actual contribution margin of this account? And, you know, is it just like, or does it accomplish something else? So I think it’s like biting off a little bit more than you can chew.
36:44.02 Clara Paye _ UNiTE um And then the one that I pay attention very closely to is quality. I think quality can sink your company so fast. You know, one quality issue, one copacker issue, one whatever issue.
36:53.05 vigorbranding yeah
36:54.04 Clara Paye _ UNiTE So if you’re not paying attention to your product, you know, so closely, um that can really be a landmine because you can always create more brands. But you know, if your brand name is like tainted, it’s hard for you.
37:07.44 vigorbranding Right. I mean, some people might not even know like that. I think people assume because you have a brand, that you actually make it yourself. And you know, there are co-packers out there and a lot of brands use co-packers and you’re handing off your basically your baby and your promise, you know, a brand is a promise, your promise to the consumer to someone else to make. Obviously, there’s there’s checks and balances there. But it it is a, you know, there’s there’s places along the way that you have to count on a lot of partners. And it’s a, I’m sure it’s a difficult business, you know,
37:36.97 Clara Paye _ UNiTE I think you have to think of your co-man relationships as kind of like your investors because they’re investing their line time, their energy you know to develop your brand as well.
37:40.66 vigorbranding here Yep.
37:44.95 Clara Paye _ UNiTE So it is a partnership. You’re not just like, you know. Um, taking and giving, right? is It’s truly a partnership but if done right. And like, yeah, I like to, I like to actually preface a lot of my buyer meetings by saying, Hey, by the way, I don’t make this in my garage.
37:56.50 vigorbranding Mm
37:57.57 Clara Paye _ UNiTE I, you know, because like the, the bias is if you’re like an emerging, I have a dream person and you’re like, make as far as in your garage and like packaging them up and sending them out.
38:01.10 vigorbranding -hmm.
38:07.22 Clara Paye _ UNiTE I thought there’s anything wrong with that. But like, when you’re trying to pitch a fortune, you know, 100 company, they got to make sure that, you know, you have your ducks in a row.
38:09.52 vigorbranding Right. eat Yeah. Yeah.
38:14.95 Clara Paye _ UNiTE And so that’s a good qualifier.
38:17.32 vigorbranding Yeah, Target doesn’t want you like ah to think you’re baking the night before. That’s funny. But I mean, yeah, it’s ah yeah’s it’s true. And it’s amazing all of the the hurdles, I’ll say, that you have to go through. So you have a great, yeah there’s a quote that you like to talk about. lot Winston Churchill, success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. And you’re always enthusiastic. You want to talk a little bit about some of those things that you had to bump up against, some of your failures, some of the things that you had to pivot.
38:44.24 Clara Paye _ UNiTE Oh, there’s so many, Michael. I mean, every, if it’s, if it was easy, everyone would do it, you know, like I say that, but it’s like, it’s so true.
38:49.31 vigorbranding Sure.
38:51.46 Clara Paye _ UNiTE And like, you know, and every entrepreneur I talk to in the food space or any space, it’s like, you gotta be able to take those hits and get back up.
38:57.56 vigorbranding Oh, yeah.
38:59.18 Clara Paye _ UNiTE But the getting back up is really hard, right?
39:02.31 vigorbranding Mm hmm.
39:02.73 Clara Paye _ UNiTE Especially when there’s like, you could do something else with your time. You could do something else with your energy.
39:06.20 vigorbranding Great.
39:07.24 Clara Paye _ UNiTE And that’s where like a mission becomes really important. And it’s like, what’s actually driving you?
39:11.03 vigorbranding Mm
39:11.36 Clara Paye _ UNiTE Cause if it’s money, you’ll give up. There’s way easier ways to make money.
39:15.17 vigorbranding hmm.
39:15.47 Clara Paye _ UNiTE Like if I wanted to go make money, I’d just take my money and invest it in real estate or whatever. I’m like, yes, we do that too. but It’s really about mission for me. And so what drives you to like make the world a better place, have a lasting impact, create products that resonate with people.
39:31.82 Clara Paye _ UNiTE And so success is just a barometer. It’s just an outcome of you living that up. But like, you know, there are times, I mean, I think if you’re not ready to throw in the towel every month in your business, are you even an entrepreneur?
39:42.90 Clara Paye _ UNiTE Like, you know, like it’s just, it’s the getting back up.
39:43.50 vigorbranding Right.
39:46.20 Clara Paye _ UNiTE And it’s like that loss of enthusiasm is what gets you. And like another way to send that is like burnout. If you’ve burned out, it’s too late. So I make sure that I don’t burn out.
39:52.89 vigorbranding Yep. Yeah, that’s very smart. That’s actually very sage advice right there. Because look, these businesses, no matter how ah exciting they are, or how long you’ve been doing them, you do hit those those troughs, you do hit the burnout phase. I mean, personally, I started my first agency 33 years ago. And it’s, you know, ah yeah well and during this whole time with COVID, there’s so much change. And and and you know You think, well, you’ve been doing this for a long time. Everything think just should be on autopilot. No. I mean, I probably worked harder in the last couple of years. I did maybe in some of the middle years. I don’t know. It’s just just a different time. So yeah, the entrepreneur thing, I think everyone takes it for granted or everyone looks over and says, oh, you’ve done that. Or you have money because of this. And ah most people don’t realize those days and those sleepless nights and those weekends and the you know the the fears of everything from bankruptcy to lawsuits to everything else. We all go through it. right i mean every
40:45.92 vigorbranding i get to I’m very fortunate i get to talk to a lot of founders, I get to talk to a lot of entrepreneurs, and a lot of successful people, and they all have the same they all have those same stories. Every one of them has that nightmare, like, yeah, there was this time when, and you know you didn’t think there was a tomorrow. so it’s ah ah you know it’s ah It’s good to hear, it because your story, you’ve seen it all all the way around from your father to to starting up now and what you’re doing. and I love that you stick to your guns. because ah Again, you can cut corners. You could do things faster, cheaper, but not better. And I think that what you do is ah is really remarkable. And i again, I know it’s going to pay off in the long run. So so what’s what’s next for you tonight? I mean, are there any new flavors? If you can’t talk about it, I understand. But if theres is there anything new products or flavors or anything exciting on the horizon?
41:29.86 Clara Paye _ UNiTE Yeah, there is a new flavor. It’s called Hot Fudge Sunday. We’ll be launching soon. And so we’re really excited about that flavor, another nostalgic childhood treat.
41:35.70 vigorbranding Awesome. Yep.
41:38.67 Clara Paye _ UNiTE Also some different, you know, we’re looking at different formats, kind of some adjacent things. So definitely an innovation pipeline out there.
41:43.72 vigorbranding that
41:44.39 Clara Paye _ UNiTE So hoping to launch some other products. But really, I want to win at bars first and, um you know, really own our category and really, you know, make sure that our velocities stay up and and everything is is good with bars.
41:59.13 vigorbranding Fantastic. All right, so one last question. And you can’t be one of your bars. But if you had one last final meal, what would you eat? Where? Why?
42:09.00 Clara Paye _ UNiTE Such a good question. I mean, I’m a California girl, so it’d probably be an In-N-Out cheeseburger, ah you know, and and yeah some french fries and egg steak, animals for sure, animal style.
42:15.08 vigorbranding There you go. All right. I respect that answer. That’s a great answer. Animal animal style, I hope.
42:25.41 Clara Paye _ UNiTE um You know, it’s kind of like, that’s the meal when we travel abroad or something and you get back, you’re like, oh, I just want an In-N-Out burger.
42:26.67 vigorbranding ah
42:30.92 vigorbranding Yeah.
42:31.05 Clara Paye _ UNiTE You know, it just, it feels like home. And I think that goes back to nostalgia and childhood too.
42:35.15 vigorbranding Anybody that with work or or or whatever, friends or family that travel with me, they know when I land in California, that’s one of the first things I do and I will not leave until I do it. It might not be the very first thing I get to do if I have a meeting, but I will have in and out before I get on that plane to fly back east.
42:51.43 vigorbranding so That’s a great answer.
42:51.95 Clara Paye _ UNiTE That’s right.
42:52.84 vigorbranding great answer so Anyway, Claire, thank you. This was awesome. I you know i appreciate you. ah you know I’ve known you a long time and it’s just so cool to hear your story and see what you’re up to and congratulations.
43:03.82 Clara Paye _ UNiTE Thanks, Michaels. Fun to be on.
43:06.07 vigorbranding Awesome. Thanks. | |||
| Season 7 highlights | 20 déc. 2024 | 00:20:23 | |
EPISODE 92 – Stephen Baldi – President of Baldi Management Group EPISODE 91 – Nick McMillan and Amanda Signorelli – Managing Partners of Golden Steer EPISODE 90 – Anand Gala – Managing partner of Gala Capital Partners EPISODE 89 – Andy Gellert – President of Gellert Global EPISODE 88 – Shannon O’Shields – VP of Marketing for Rubix Foods EPISODE 87 – Doug Renfro – President of Renfro Foods and Salsa Creator Extraordinaire EPISODE 86 – Burney Jennings – Executive Chairman of Biscuitville EPISODE 85 – Ben Jacobs – Chef, founder of Tocabe and Native local pioneer | |||
| Stephen Baldi – President of Baldi Management Group | 02 déc. 2024 | 00:50:36 | |
Stephen oversees Baldi Management Group (BMG), an airport concessions and management consulting company that manages restaurants in Reagan National Airport, JFK International Airport and Dulles International Airport. Established in 2008, BMG operates various food and beverage outlets, including franchises like Dunkin’ Donuts, Potbelly, and Smashburger. Stephen is an alumnus of Georgetown University, where he was a Community Scholar and student-athlete. He attributes his success to mentorship and now mentors young people, aiming to provide growth opportunities within his company. As founder-led company, Stephen has formed connections with other DC-based founder-led restaurants like Founding Famers and Timber Pizza as well as with larger national brands. About 15-20% of BMG’s customers are employees from the airport itself. Stephen is a strong advocate of mentorship and helping employees grow and advance within an organization, even if it means the employee leaving the organization for a better opportunity. QUOTES“My commitment to making meaningful connections with people comes from way back then when I was forced to do it, not only because of who I am but my circumstances and I’ve tried to carry that out through my career and my life.” (Stephen) “There’s something different about a founder-led company, because you’ve built it.” (Stephen) “Airports are a wonderful place to work. Once you end up in this ecosystem, it’s hard to walk away.” (Stephen) “(In airports), the passengers are dynamic. We get to meet and connect with them all. We have the privilege of participating in whatever journey people are on every day and the following day, we get a whole new group of people.” (Stephen) “The (airport concessions and restaurant industry) is about an $8 billion a year industry nationally but the industry is controlled by about 20 key companies. It’s a small ecosystem.” (Stephen) “Operating a streetside restaurant versus a restaurant in an airport is a completely different sport. The speed, the requirements, the logistical challenges (of being an in airport), all of our crewmembers have to go through background checks. Unless you’re a serious player, you’re not trying to participate in airports.” (Stephen) “We encourage our crewmembers just to meet people where they are. It may be the 50th time you’ve welcomed someone to our restaurant but it’s the first time you’ve spoken to the person in front of you. You should be additive to their experience and not add additional stress or complications.” (Stephen) “We welcome the chaos. When it’s raining and snowing outside and your flights are delayed, we kind of welcome that because that means we get to hang out with you a little bit longer.” (Stephen) “If I bring in someone as a front line worker who’s pouring coffee, if they’re still pouring coffee in three years, both them and the organization has done something wrong. We want to scale people up.” (Stephen) TRANSCRIPT00:01.9900:01.99 vigorbranding Hey folks, welcome to Fork Tales, and I’m excited. Today’s guest is Stephen Baldi He’s the founder and president of Baldi Management Group. Baldy Management Group is an airport concessions and management consulting company. It’s a mouthful there. ah Manages concessions in Reagan National Airport, JFK International Airport, and Dulles International Airport. Stephen, welcome to Fork Tales, and thank you so much for joining us. 00:25.82 Stephen Baldi Michael, thank you for having me. I’m looking forward to the conversation. 00:29.01 vigorbranding So for those that don’t know, all of these are located in the sort of DC Metro, Baltimore or down at DC Metro area, right? 00:36.21 Stephen Baldi Correct. 00:37.04 vigorbranding Yeah. 00:37.19 Stephen Baldi Yeah, even though Philadelphia is my hometown, I’ve been in Washington DC for almost 30 years. um So this is home base for us. 00:46.37 vigorbranding yeah Well, you you you know, I have a little trick question because that was going to be my first question. Are you still a Philly sports fan? I mean, do you bleed Eagle Green? 00:53.03 Stephen Baldi if If you cut me, it would be nothing but green. I live in Washington, DC. 00:56.48 vigorbranding OK, beautiful. 00:57.88 Stephen Baldi My heart is in Philadelphia. 00:59.81 vigorbranding Beautiful, beautiful. Wow. There’s, there’s guys, I don’t even know what they call themselves these days. these’s The commanders, the Washington football club. 01:04.91 Stephen Baldi oh The Washington football team, they’re all. 01:05.40 vigorbranding I mean, they’re just, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just, it’s irrelevant. It’s irrelevant. 01:10.11 Stephen Baldi Yeah, Michael, my family would disown me if anything other than my ah zip code changed as far as my hometown affiliation. 01:10.06 vigorbranding So that’s fantastic. Hey, it’s awesome. You got to bring, I had a gentleman come in, uh, from, uh, Oregon last week to speak to a bunch of advertising agencies from North America. We hosted them in Philadelphia and this guy was so excited. He was, he, he, he came from there, but he was Philly through and through. So everything in his presentation tied back to a Philly icon, something about Philadelphia that was iconic. And, you know, ah in our company, we’re, 01:44.34 vigorbranding We’re very proud that we’re an independent advertising agencies. We have an agency called Vigor and an agency called Quench. Vigor’s restaurant branding. Quench is food and beverage marketing. And the whole thing was around independence and how it’s how important it is. 01:57.06 vigorbranding And he had all these great icons from like Nick Foles to, ah you know, ah Mike Schmidt to the Fanatic to, I mean, Will Smith. 02:07.11 vigorbranding I mean, he just went through all the Philadelphia stuff, you know, the Liberty Bell and everything else. and So it was cool. It was cool. 02:11.77 Stephen Baldi um I love it. I’ll tell you an interesting story about Nick Foles. So I had a really good feeling about our Super Bowl run, even though you know Carson Wentz, who was leading as the MVP that year, went down. And the Friday before the Super Bowl, something told me to go online and buy a Nick Foles autograph helmet. 02:33.57 vigorbranding Wow. 02:34.10 Stephen Baldi And I did. Now, I did not expedite the shipping, Michael. So it was not in my possession on Monday after we had won the Super Bowl. And many of my friends said that helmet’s never going to show up, but it did. 02:47.65 Stephen Baldi So I bought it for $99. 02:47.77 vigorbranding That’s awesome. 02:49.77 Stephen Baldi And I can tell you, it’s it’s worth a lot more than that. 02:51.92 vigorbranding That’s awesome. Yeah, it’s worth a lot to people in Philadelphia. So it’s fantastic. And the pride of that city runs deep. So alright, so tell us about Baldy enter Management Group and what it does what inspired you to get into the airport concession games. I mean, you started I think in residential property, right? 03:06.90 Stephen Baldi I did. I started in residential property management in 2002. And I started in airports in 2005. And it was all kind of serendipitous. I had a really ah prickly history before starting in 2002. 03:23.22 Stephen Baldi at Kettler Management, which managed tax credit properties, but also Class A luxury communities. 03:29.04 vigorbranding Okay. 03:29.23 Stephen Baldi And I had a tenant coming to my office. And she said, Steven, I see you engaging with the residents and how you handle issues. And I think you should be doing more. And I thought to myself, like this woman doesn’t know me. 03:39.92 Stephen Baldi Yeah, I just fixed her fireplace. But who are you to come in my office and tell me what I should be doing? And at the time, I was making $22,000 a year with a Georgetown degree. And the job that they wanted me to interview for paid $85,000 a year. 03:54.21 vigorbranding wow 03:54.39 Stephen Baldi So as you can assume, Michael, goal I took the interview, I got the job. And so for three years, I worked in development for Westfield, which most people know as shopping mall developers, they have an airport division. 04:05.82 vigorbranding Hmm. Ah. 04:07.99 Stephen Baldi And so I was responsible for the redevelopment of national airport here in Washington, DC from 2005. to 2008. And then I leveraged a relationship with OTG Management, which has a very large presence at Philadelphia International, um into a joint venture relationship and actually launched the company, BMG, in 2008. And two thousand and eight and it’s we’ve not looked back since. 04:31.36 vigorbranding That’s fantastic. you know It’s funny. I really i don’t know you. we’re We’re really talking for the first time. I can tell right away, like youre you have a positive attitude, and I can tell you’re engaging. And so I could see how someone would see you in action and be like, hey, you know you you could do more. like You can be a part of something bigger. And it’s obviously what’s happened, which is it’s awesome. I’m a big proponent of attitude. I mean, i I love to know where people went to school. I mean, if you if I interview you, I want to see your brains on the table. 04:58.39 vigorbranding But I really want to know what your personality is like. I want to know about your attitude. I want to know ah how ah how much of a ah person you are that wants to win and be engaging and help people. And it’s ah like it comes through with you right away. 05:09.91 vigorbranding And that’s ah it’s cool. 05:10.18 Stephen Baldi I appreciate that. 05:11.03 vigorbranding now it’s it’s 05:11.32 Stephen Baldi Yeah, i’ll I’ll take it back if you if you want me to. So ah back in 1988, I was turning 13 and I begged my mom for a pair of Air Jordan sneakers. 05:24.58 Stephen Baldi And you’ll remember when Gordon’s first came out, ah they were the first shoe over a hundred dollars. 05:25.72 vigorbranding Oh, yeah. 05:29.85 vigorbranding Oh, yes, they were. 05:30.36 Stephen Baldi yeah I grew up in a upper lower class household and it was a stretch for my mom to purchase these shoes. 05:31.49 vigorbranding Yep. 05:37.09 vigorbranding Mm hmm. 05:38.21 Stephen Baldi But I begged her and I begged her and I begged her and and she ended up buying them for me. And she said, you know, I just want you to be safe. Well, you probably can assume where the story goes. Within like a month of getting these sneakers, I was an attempted robbery, and I acted very violently to defend myself, and it resulted in me getting expelled from the school that I was at. 05:59.94 Stephen Baldi And as a punishment, ah rather than letting me play basketball for the entire summer, my mom forced me to go to the reading math and basketball clinic at Friend Central, which is a very prominent independent school on the main line of Philadelphia. 06:14.39 vigorbranding Mm hmm. 06:14.96 Stephen Baldi And that decision changed my life. um I went from living in a predominantly all-Black neighborhood to a private school that I was the only Black male in my class. 06:25.11 vigorbranding Wow. 06:25.74 Stephen Baldi And what it did was it changed my perspective of what was accessible. like I had never seen a computer before. 06:31.75 vigorbranding Right. 06:32.14 Stephen Baldi And at this school, there was in a computer lab where we could sit down and navigate things. 06:34.40 vigorbranding Yeah. 06:36.15 Stephen Baldi And so going to Friends Central, having my mom make that leap of faith changed my trajectory in many ways. I matriculated from there to Georgetown University here in Washington, DC, which is how I got. 06:48.20 Stephen Baldi to Washington DC. So I am a super Philadelphia sports fan, because not only am I from Philly, but Allen Iverson was my classmate at Georgetown University. 06:51.93 vigorbranding That’s awesome. 06:55.50 vigorbranding Is that right? 06:56.61 Stephen Baldi Yeah, we were the same class. 06:56.89 vigorbranding Wow. 06:57.61 Stephen Baldi And so, yeah, very cool. 06:58.33 vigorbranding That’s so cool. Yeah. 07:00.38 Stephen Baldi And so maya my commitment to making meaningful connections with people comes from way back then when I was forced to do it, not only because of who I am, but my circumstances. 07:00.74 vigorbranding AI. It’s legendary. 07:12.75 Stephen Baldi And I’ve tried to carry that out through my career and my life. 07:15.84 vigorbranding That’s fantastic. what a great That’s great. That’s a great story. you know it’s like It’s funny that on the Air Jordans, at that time, when they came out, and I can follow you on that. i know you You nailed it. You said the first sneaker that was over $100. My dad had ah this like mom and pop retail sporting store. We sold mostly like hockey stuff. We were from Hershey, Pennsylvania. 07:35.39 vigorbranding And I was working in a store in in Camp Hill and outside of Hershey. It’s up in the West Shore, they call it. Anyway, long story short, I was in the mall and we sold some sneakers and the Air Jordans came out and we had them on the wall. 07:48.37 vigorbranding And it was like, it was insane. $100 for a pair of sneakers. 07:52.08 Stephen Baldi Yeah. 07:52.28 vigorbranding And I mean, like, whereas I’ll say the average then was probably like on the high end was probably like 50, 55. 07:57.40 Stephen Baldi Yeah, for sure. 07:58.58 vigorbranding And this went right to 100. And it was funny, my dad, maybe that’s where I started learning about, and I really did learn a lot about marketing, working in retail, because you have to talk to people, you have to sell. And I think that’s the most important skill a person can learn. Communicating with people and learning how to sell, like, you know, at least present yourself, right? So I put these sneakers at the very top. I said, dad, you know what? ah I said, everybody wants the Air Jordans. Most people can’t afford them. 08:21.42 vigorbranding but everyone wants to come and look at it. So I always sell them the white, the white, men’s the body they’re like but you know, so for every one Air Jordan, I saw, I used to sell like 30 other pairs of shoes. 08:25.49 Stephen Baldi ah yeah 08:30.65 vigorbranding You know what I mean? 08:31.05 Stephen Baldi It’s been up in the store. It’s like a newspaper. People don’t necessarily want just the newspaper, at least the retailer does it, but they come in to buy the newspaper and then they buy the water, the soda, the candy. 08:33.13 vigorbranding That’s right. 08:39.73 vigorbranding That’s right. yeah I lured them in with the Air Jordans. I think we had like five parrot the most. I mean, we couldn’t afford, you know, it’s a little mom pop store. 08:46.41 Stephen Baldi Probably two sizes. 08:47.56 vigorbranding Yeah, right. That’s exactly right. So that’s funny. So okay, you talked about sports and and and you know, Philly and all that you you pride yourself on um being a local company and playing in front of the home crowd. 08:58.99 vigorbranding Talk a little bit about the the local connection in DC that you have. 09:02.34 Stephen Baldi Yeah, so I’ll tell you, when you fly into most airports, what people don’t automatically see, but being a former developer, I understand that any airport authority, when you land in their airport, they want you to know what city you are in. 09:18.24 Stephen Baldi So national brands are extremely important. So you’ll have your Dunkin’ Donuts. You’ll have your Pop-Belly’s, which are ah franchises that we operate. 09:22.12 vigorbranding Mm hmm. 09:25.89 Stephen Baldi But every airport wants you to have a sense of place. So when you fly into Philadelphia Airport, you’ll have a Jim Stakes, because that’s you know historical to that region. 09:34.38 vigorbranding Yeah. 09:34.93 Stephen Baldi When you fly into National Airport here, or Dallas International, you’ll have your South Blocks, which is an ASE base. com concept here in the DC. 09:45.49 Stephen Baldi You’ll have Ben’s Chili Bowl, which has been around since the 60s. 09:45.90 vigorbranding Mm hmm. Mm hmm. 09:49.41 Stephen Baldi And so we’ve prided ourselves from identifying and connecting with other founder-led brands, because I’m a founder. And nothing against a hired gun. 09:56.93 vigorbranding Mm hmm. 09:58.81 Stephen Baldi I know they are often effective at their job. But there’s something different about a founder-led company because you’ve built it. 10:06.95 vigorbranding Yeah. 10:07.27 Stephen Baldi it probably has more ah meaning to you behind just the bottom line um results that you drive. It’s personal. 10:15.52 vigorbranding Yeah. 10:15.69 Stephen Baldi And so we’ve developed very deep relationships with companies like founding farmers, with timber pizza, who are all local based companies here. And we expect to continue to grow it, not just in this region that we’re in, but as we grow into other markets to do the same. 10:30.68 vigorbranding Yeah, that’s that’s fantastic. And you nailed it. I mean, like, I’m a founder, I’m an entrepreneur. And you know, and ah again, wonderful folks that that work with me, I’m very, very, very lucky. But you know, for for most people, it’s their job, you know, their career, and and hopefully there’s a sense of of a family and a real relationship. 10:49.53 vigorbranding But for me, it’s my life. I mean, i am I am defined personally by this, which is probably pretty shallow. 10:51.05 Stephen Baldi right 10:54.86 vigorbranding I mean, i mean look, um I love my daughters. I’m a dad. I’m ah a husband. I love my family with all my heart, but I feel like I’m defined by my company and the what I’ve built. and and all of that And I just, you know, so again, I don’t know if that’s a bad thing or a good thing or whatever, but it’s just, it’s ah it’s a lot deeper, right? 11:11.93 vigorbranding When you found something and ah it’s it’s a lot deeper, everyone thinks it has to do with like money and stuff, and it really doesn’t. 11:12.49 Stephen Baldi Right. For sure. 11:17.73 vigorbranding It’s a it’s really about, you know, sort of like your life’s life’s work. and You know, you know, I get I get the most excitement out of seeing the growth of the folks in the company. ah It’s great to see the brands grow and the companies grow. 11:30.42 vigorbranding But I really get a kick out of of seeing the folks that have been here a long time and and all that. So anyway, that’s just that’s me. 11:35.91 Stephen Baldi right 11:36.26 vigorbranding But I just I totally I totally concur with what you’re saying as far as the founder led. I mean, that’s that’s fantastic. 11:41.40 Stephen Baldi Yeah, at some point as a founder, you most likely had to put something at risk that meant something to you. 11:47.14 vigorbranding Yeah. 11:47.50 Stephen Baldi Whether it’s personal guaranteeing, first leverage to build the company or, you know, having to bail it out because you run into a pandemic, which we all face back in 2020. 11:47.75 vigorbranding Oh, yeah. Yeah. 11:55.18 vigorbranding All right. 11:57.80 Stephen Baldi um Oftentimes you can’t just walk from that business and matriculate to another W2 position because this is yours. And so I love when I can connect with founders. 12:04.69 vigorbranding Yeah. 12:07.41 Stephen Baldi I’ll work with non-founders also, but there’s something unique about the journey we’ve all been on. 12:09.54 vigorbranding Sure. 12:11.88 vigorbranding Yeah, absolutely. So let’s let’s talk a little bit. I just so folks know, I mean, what’s really cool about this conversation is I, ah you know, with vigor, we work with restaurant brands, right? 12:22.32 vigorbranding So we’re very familiar with restaurant brands. And you you have brands like Potbelly, Smashburger. You said founding farmers soon to come. ah Timber Pizza, Dunkin, I mean, some some household names. 12:33.94 vigorbranding I don’t know if I’m um yeah any ants. 12:34.26 Stephen Baldi On the end, don’t forget on the end, this is what else we have. 12:35.99 vigorbranding No, I can’t actually. Yeah, we actually worked on any answers. We have an agency called quench that a branding agency, Food and Beverage, that that actually worked with Auntie Anne’s because they started here in Lancaster. 12:40.96 Stephen Baldi Okay. 12:45.88 vigorbranding hu Yeah, and I got to meet Anne Byler in the beginning. 12:45.98 Stephen Baldi They did. 12:48.81 vigorbranding So, Auntie Anne is actually a person and she’s a wonderful lady and It was a really really awesome to meet her and and and what a she was so she’s a very philanthropic lady very very ah ah Generous and very successful very so she’s got a phenomenal story as well. But so yeah, I certainly won’t leave the auntie hands out But you so you have all these great brands um Talk a little bit about I mean, you know, you said somewhere founded by they you know the founders and all that what’s it like to to manage all these different brands and 13:18.00 Stephen Baldi I’ll tell you, it’s a dynamic environment. Airports are a wonderful place to do business. Again, I share with you briefly how I matriculated into them, but once you end up in this kind of ecosystem, it’s hard to walk away. 13:33.35 Stephen Baldi We get the privilege of serving the traveling public every day. And what’s special about that are the passengers are dynamic. There are people who are going on business trips. There are people who are going on vacations. There are people who are going to be celebrated and there are people who are going to, you know, 13:51.28 Stephen Baldi usher people off into a transition of life. And we get to meet and connect with them all. And so I tell our crew members that we have the privilege of participating in whatever journey people are on every day. 14:03.68 Stephen Baldi And then the following day, we get a whole new group of people coming through. 14:06.48 vigorbranding yeah yeah 14:07.36 Stephen Baldi So that’s dynamic in the industries are small. I will tell you it’s about a $8 billion industry nationally in the United States, food and beverage and airports. 14:14.57 vigorbranding Yeah. Yeah. 14:19.40 Stephen Baldi But the industry is really controlled by about 20 key companies. And within those 20 companies, you probably have 50 total key players. 14:23.32 vigorbranding yeah 14:27.50 Stephen Baldi And so we know each other. you know You typically don’t leave the industry. Your business card may change. So you may go from company to company, but it’s a small ecosystem. And so I’ve enjoyed being in the industry now. 14:40.58 Stephen Baldi 18 years. I started when I was two. ah But it’s a buy it’s been an extraordinary 18 years, except for some of the challenges like COVID. But you know for the people who were able and blessed to push through it, I think we have a different perspective on what we can be and what we should be in the businesses that we lead. To your point, 15:00.50 Stephen Baldi um being defined by your business is not necessarily shallow, but there’s levels, there’s there’s depth to what we do. 15:08.62 vigorbranding Yeah. 15:08.91 Stephen Baldi And I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to swim in those depths ah for many years. 15:14.41 vigorbranding That’s awesome. We’ll get to COVID in a second, but I want to go back to airports. ah I’ll say, fortunately or unfortunately, I’m a customer. I’m in an airport every single week. So when you’re describing the people you see there, it’s like, yeah. 15:21.70 Stephen Baldi Awesome. 15:24.71 vigorbranding I mean, you know there’s it’s every single walk of life. Everyone seems to have a higher level of stress. 15:30.65 Stephen Baldi yeah 15:30.77 vigorbranding Everyone’s in a hurry, even when they’re not, or even worse, if someone’s really not in a hurry and they’re walking slow in the airport, that can actually be more frustrating and stressful. but ah So how do you how do you deal with that chaos? I mean, you got all these people that are amped up and nervous and they have anxiety or whatever, and then all of a sudden you’ve got to serve them and take them, you know, and represent these great brands and and and actually make the stuff and and in a and a fast time because they’re always running late, even if they’re not, they just think they’re always stressed. 15:56.04 Stephen Baldi Right. 15:59.20 vigorbranding Talk about airport concessions. Talk about that chaos. 16:02.08 Stephen Baldi Yeah, so you meet people where they are. And I will tell you, operating a street-side restaurant versus an airport, it’s a completely different sport. 16:09.79 vigorbranding I cannot imagine. 16:10.73 Stephen Baldi I tell ah these founder-led companies when they’re thinking about matriculating in the airports, I tell them you know it’s like playing high school varsity basketball. 16:10.80 vigorbranding yeah 16:19.70 Stephen Baldi And then you get drafted to the and NBA, like the speed, the requirements, you know, we have to go through the logistical um challenges of having every box that comes into your restaurant scan. 16:20.40 vigorbranding Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 16:31.21 Stephen Baldi Like Cisco’s not pulling up to our back door and delivering our ground beef for Smashburger. 16:31.53 vigorbranding Yeah. 16:34.05 vigorbranding Right. 16:35.85 Stephen Baldi Like it’s going through an X-ray, just like your luggage is. 16:38.86 vigorbranding Yeah. 16:39.39 Stephen Baldi um All of our crew members have to go through a 10 year federal background check. 16:44.03 vigorbranding Sure. 16:44.19 Stephen Baldi um There’s complexities to the business, which are to our challenge. But to me, it’s also kind of to our benefit, Michael, because it reduces my competition. Because unless you’re a serious player, you’re not trying to participate in airports. 16:54.14 vigorbranding Mhm. 16:56.81 Stephen Baldi And so for me, understanding those barriers and be able to navigate them are great. But from a day to day operation standpoint, We encourage our crew members just to meet people where they are. 17:07.93 Stephen Baldi um It may be the 50th time you’ve welcomed someone to our restaurant, but it’s the first time you’ve spoken to the person that’s in front of you. And again, you don’t know if they’re going on vacation or they’re going to a celebration of life to send a family member home. 17:16.31 vigorbranding right 17:22.96 Stephen Baldi Regardless, you should be additive to their experience and not adding additional stress or complications. Just try to deliver them fast, friendly, exceptional, 17:34.09 Stephen Baldi service because that’s our standard. That is our vision for the company, which is being exceptional is our standard. It’s not something that happens intermittently. 17:42.84 vigorbranding All right. 17:44.59 Stephen Baldi It happens all the time. And so we welcome the chaos. 17:45.78 vigorbranding Yeah. 17:48.05 Stephen Baldi You know, when it’s raining and snowing outside, even though your flights are delayed, we kind of welcome that because that means you get to hang out with you a little bit longer. 17:54.78 vigorbranding Yeah. Yeah. 17:55.63 Stephen Baldi So as long as we’re not canceling flights, if they’re just delayed, that’s kind of our sweet spot. 18:00.01 vigorbranding There you go. 18:00.65 Stephen Baldi So we welcome it all. 18:02.58 vigorbranding That’s awesome. You know, you you said something really interesting. So as I mentioned, Vigor is our agency that that does branding and marketing for restaurants. I know, and it’s not, you know, it’s common knowledge that turnover and and employees in the restaurant industry is like the biggest hassle, right? and Everyone’s dealing with that that turnover. But you just said something. they They have to go through this long, arduous process to get through. So do you find that you have, I’ll say, maybe better better qualified, better quality, 18:32.38 vigorbranding ah team members in your restaurants? 18:34.64 Stephen Baldi I would tell you that our hourly and even our salary leadership ah on some levels, they’re more committed because it is a personal investment to get through the process. 18:39.98 vigorbranding Mm-hmm. 18:45.54 Stephen Baldi And so, you know, typical food and beverage turnover is anywhere from 100 to 150%. And only ours is closer to like 30. 18:51.64 vigorbranding Right. 18:54.91 vigorbranding that’s hey That’s fantastic. I never thought that that would have never dawned on me that that would be ah an unfair advantage. you know It’s funny, like yeah I was telling someone the other day, you know the higher the barrier to entry in business, actually the better the business is because you don’t have just everybody and anybody competing. 19:12.66 vigorbranding So you you have a higher barrier of entry. 19:13.25 Stephen Baldi Correct. 19:15.58 vigorbranding um And with that, you have you sort of have ah have a capture to a degree ah group of people, right? ah But the one thing that is interesting, I think if I remember correctly, I think there’s like 30%, I’ll say of ah if it’s a Dunkin Donuts on the street corner, 30% of their their ah customers will probably repeat, right? 19:35.43 vigorbranding ah you You are not, I mean, you know you might have the same business guy that flies every Thursday out to you know wherever, 19:37.58 Stephen Baldi No? 19:40.80 Stephen Baldi we have We’ll have our Michaels. 19:41.81 vigorbranding Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 19:42.16 Stephen Baldi We have our Michaels. 19:43.59 vigorbranding I’ll hit your place and at the airport get a coffee on the way out, but that’s it. Yeah, that’s it. So that’s. 19:48.43 Stephen Baldi I will tell you, though, we do have outside of the the traveling public, we do have recurring customers who are the people who work at the airport. I mean, at National and Dulles Airport, you get anywhere from five thousand to ten thousand employees that are there every day. 19:56.97 vigorbranding No, that makes sense. Sure. 20:03.65 Stephen Baldi And so ah they are also extremely important to us. 20:03.75 vigorbranding Mm hmm. Hey, they got to eat and drink, right? 20:07.86 Stephen Baldi They got to eat and drink and they have to do it fast. 20:09.70 vigorbranding Right. That’s right. 20:10.84 Stephen Baldi Well, we have different incentives to get them in and out, but they are our recurring customers and they’re about 15 to 20 percent of our business. 20:15.10 vigorbranding Yeah, that makes sense. Hey, going back to the old mall days that I was talking about the sneakers, I sold a lot of sneakers to people that worked in the mall, not many Air Jordans, but a lot of the, you know, a lot of the lower end sneakers. 20:22.26 Stephen Baldi Yeah, for sure. 20:27.36 vigorbranding So, we talked to you hit on earlier and I know we, we inevitably, hopefully one day we, we don’t, and we don’t have to talk about, we always go back and talking about COVID and, uh, you know, 20:35.54 Stephen Baldi Oh, yeah. 20:37.21 vigorbranding One of our companies and our holding company is a company called Varsity. And Varsity does retirement communities around the country, we market retirement companies. Well, that that industry shut down. I mean, no one was going, no one was visiting, and people were sick. It was bad. Restaurants, another one of our our agencies, right? We marketed restaurants. No one was going. It was basically shut down. you know Your hospitality Uh, and your restaurants, I mean, and your travel, I mean, you’re, you’re combining it all and how, talk about that a little bit. 21:06.75 vigorbranding I mean, you were hit from both ends. 21:07.11 Stephen Baldi Oh, I had the privilege of double dipping. 21:11.81 vigorbranding Yeah. 21:11.93 Stephen Baldi So we were in hospitality beverage, but we were also in travel. 21:12.41 vigorbranding In turmoil. 21:15.47 vigorbranding Yeah. 21:16.03 Stephen Baldi And so I remember very specifically on March 11th, 2020, President Trump came on television and he announced a 30-day travel ban to Europe. 21:27.16 vigorbranding Mm-hmm. 21:28.65 Stephen Baldi And at the time, ah most people only thought about the impact of air traffic travel to Europe, places like London, Paris. 21:37.58 vigorbranding right 21:38.31 Stephen Baldi But I anticipated that this was really the big moment for our industry. 21:43.00 vigorbranding Right. 21:43.21 Stephen Baldi I know a lot of people associate kind of their aha moment with COVID becoming a significant thing when the NBA shut down and more importantly, when the NCAA tournament shut down. 21:53.85 Stephen Baldi But that announcement on March 11th signified for me that things were about to change for my business. 21:58.60 vigorbranding Yeah. 21:58.72 Stephen Baldi Now, I didn’t know it was going to be 18 months. 22:02.21 vigorbranding Right. 22:02.55 Stephen Baldi um But within about two weeks, we lost 85% of our top line revenue. And so on March 18, we shut the company down for 18 months. um And it was a challenge to what we talked about earlier, where a lot of my identity was tied up in this company that I built. 22:20.39 Stephen Baldi Well, there was no company to have an identity he tied to. And so for me as a leader, It really pushed me during that time to redefine who I was in that moment and who I was going to aspire to be if we were privileged enough to come out of it. And we did. We’ve come out very strong, stronger than actually we went in. um We actually sold 35% of the business last year to some strategic, but then also some individual investors. And so I’ve had the privilege of surrounding myself where before I was the only voice in the room and now there are many. 22:55.69 vigorbranding Right. 22:55.77 Stephen Baldi And it presents some unique challenges, but also some extraordinary opportunities for me to low to learn and grow from other individuals and institutions that have built companies to scale, not all in food and beverage, many not. 23:10.17 Stephen Baldi um But it’s really given me the opportunity to become a better leader um and to take our company into the next five to 10 years of what we will be. 23:20.35 vigorbranding That’s fantastic. you know i the the The COVID obviously affected everybody. It affected everybody in different ways. and like For us for a business, it was and it was really interesting in that you know because we have several different agencies in our holding company, it was sort of a little bit of a like a mutual fund where one or two stocks could be really down, but then others can be up. Our CPG agency, Quench, 23:40.72 vigorbranding you know we’ We’re doing we’re doing brands national brands like you know Sunmade Raise and Stark Institute. To me, COVID, to to that to that company and those brands, COVID was like the greatest sampling program in the history of Earth. i mean If you put it in a package back then, it was on a shelf. People bought it. They stuck it in their pantries. They ate it. They bought more of it. i mean They couldn’t get enough of it. i mean It was just ah an insane time. 24:01.94 vigorbranding for those companies. and then the other the The negative side obviously was the restaurants and everything else. i mean It’s a really interesting time. and and you know You said about how you it can define things. the other thing One of the other things we did was we took adversity. We had all these CEOs that were like, what is everyone doing? i mean like you you know This just happened. It was unprecedented. What is everybody else doing? so We thought, well, 24:23.89 vigorbranding All right, we’re not making i mean and and again it’s not we’re not making revenue businesses down, but we still have these relationships. They’re our clients. So what can we do? So it wasn’t my idea, but one of our guys said, hey, let’s create sort of a round table. of that And our agency is called Varsity. So we called it the Varsity Round Table. So we got all these CEOs that were just like, 24:41.34 vigorbranding What’s everyone doing? And they were able to talk and it was so successful that we did it the next week. And then they talked more and then more and more CEOs jumped in. They weren’t even our clients and became this open source sharing that has now been, we are on about, I think it’s like 250th. 24:58.49 vigorbranding roundt We’ve been doing them every week since the first month of COVID. 25:04.38 Stephen Baldi Wow, impressive. 25:05.19 vigorbranding And what’s done for a company, for us, i mean again we don’t make any money from it. And it wasn’t about that. It was just a place for people to really vent and help. And now we have speakers come in and talk, and everyone’s obviously well beyond COVID. 25:16.71 vigorbranding But it’s really allowed us to be a thought leader and assist these folks. And you know at the end of the day, it’s what it’s all about. And I know a big thing for you is is mentorship, right? I mean, you know talk about giving back. you want you Do you want to talk a little bit about that? 25:27.81 Stephen Baldi Yeah, I’ll talk about that but I’ll also talk similarly to your roundtable so in February of 2020 I had the privilege of joining the organization YPO, which is Young President Organization, which is very similar to what you define there’s 35. 25:42.82 Stephen Baldi 1,000 YPO members globally. And it’s really for business leaders who have decided that they want to walk towards betterment as a person, as a leader, as a family member, as someone contributing to their community in partnership with other leaders. 25:58.55 Stephen Baldi And so I am in the Washington DC Baltimore chapter here ah in the region. 25:58.93 vigorbranding Mm hmm. 26:04.18 Stephen Baldi And I’m in leadership. And I can tell you that organization was really critical in me navigating everything that I had to go through ah during COVID. 26:14.98 Stephen Baldi Now, we didn’t we didn’t meet weekly, um but we do meet monthly in a small group of seven to 10 people, and we have forum. 26:15.26 vigorbranding Sure. 26:19.82 vigorbranding Monthly forum. 26:22.81 Stephen Baldi And, oh, there you go. 26:22.85 vigorbranding I didn’t know I’m i’m YPO, too. I didn’t know your IPO. Yeah, I’ve been. 26:25.92 Stephen Baldi Yeah! 26:26.21 vigorbranding Yeah. 26:27.01 Stephen Baldi So YDO is really what sustained me during COVID. 26:27.03 vigorbranding So Oh. 26:29.86 Stephen Baldi um And I’m privileged to be on the ladder now in leadership. 26:32.72 vigorbranding Do for you. 26:35.01 Stephen Baldi And so, yeah, as far as mentorship, when I started the company, you know it was a priority for me to give opportunity to underrepresented populations. um Now, as I started to grow the company, my focus started to turn inward, Michael, if I’m being honest. And you know the beginning of 2020, it was difficult for anybody to tell me that I wasn’t the shit. I built this company from zero to something much larger than I had ever aspired to as a young person. 27:04.34 vigorbranding Right. 27:06.68 Stephen Baldi um But COVID took all of that away. 27:08.81 vigorbranding Yeah. 27:09.14 Stephen Baldi And so what it reminded me of is that there was a mission that I started this company with. And it was something that I needed to recommit to when we reopened. 27:19.90 Stephen Baldi And so now um we’re really pouring into our crew members um When I hire someone, specifically, let’s take Dunkin Donuts. 27:30.76 Stephen Baldi If I bring in someone as a frontline worker that’s pouring coffee, if they’re still pouring coffee for us in three years, both them and the organization has done something wrong. 27:34.59 vigorbranding Mmhmm. 27:41.17 Stephen Baldi um We want to scale people up. It is not cost effective for us to have people in the same position for multiple years. So if we’re not scaling someone up to take on additional responsibility inside our company and sometimes even outside of our company, then we’ve done something wrong. you know My mentor told me a good leader ah expects or wants people to leave. A great leader expects them to. 28:08.64 vigorbranding Yeah. 28:09.01 Stephen Baldi And so either they’re leaving the position that we’re hiring them for or they’re leaving to go to another organization. But either way, we have to invest in our hourly crew members because we can’t afford not to. 28:20.86 vigorbranding Yeah. 28:21.76 Stephen Baldi And so that’s something that we really communicate out and share out. to our community and our organization and people know that we’re gonna invest in them in ways that other companies might not to and we feel like that gives us a competitive advantage and as a leader it makes me feel a good about not only our bottom line results but also the success that we can feel. I have a manager who’s been with us for eight years. 28:46.57 Stephen Baldi Her name is Marta. And she started as a single unit manager. And now she’s a multi-airport director. 28:53.24 vigorbranding awesome. 28:53.39 Stephen Baldi And to see her growth and to understand the impact that that has has had on her family is tremendous. And I want to do that a hundred times over. 29:00.50 vigorbranding Sure. 29:00.79 Stephen Baldi And I have the privilege of being able to do that as a leader of our company. 29:01.01 vigorbranding Yeah. 29:04.70 vigorbranding and And think of it this way, I mean, and that’s what’s so great about this country, I’ll say is like, you were making whatever $22,000 a year, I think you had free room or board or whatever you were managing, right? 29:12.60 Stephen Baldi I did. 29:13.65 vigorbranding So you you’re probably like, I’m getting by, this is okay. And look, you and you know, obviously, you’re you’re very well educated, you have a great drive and personality, but you you created a a huge company. And that’s, that’s, that’s really super cool, really super cool. 29:25.90 Stephen Baldi Well, Michael, I can tell you specifically in that first year, 2002, I made $19,117 and 43 cents. I can tell you that specifically because that W2 still sits on my desk. 29:36.80 Stephen Baldi I have it framed. 29:36.84 vigorbranding Yeah, yeah. 29:37.68 Stephen Baldi I look at it every day just to remind me of where all of this started and where now we’ve grown the company to I’m, I’m extremely proud. 29:45.15 vigorbranding Yeah. And you know, you mentioned YPO and I’ve been very privileged to be in that organization for, gosh, I think at least 20 some years. 29:53.06 Stephen Baldi So you joined when you were 17. 29:54.45 vigorbranding Yeah, no, but yeah, it’s one of those things, is we you know, it used to kick you out when you’re 50. In fact, I did, I got the rocking chair and showed up at the front door. 30:02.59 Stephen Baldi Oh, there you go. 30:03.68 vigorbranding Yeah, that was the thing. And then they decided to have YPO Gold, WPO and all that. stuff So I stayed in and now we’re like a forum for life. So my guys, we meet once a month and we are together. ah we A lot of it’s virtual because these guys, a lot of it, we’re retired and stuff. 30:15.91 vigorbranding So um I’m old. I mean, the it’s YPO o Gold, but I always say it’s Silent G, you know, YPO old. So, but it’s a, it was the greatest thing I’ve ever done for me. 30:26.29 vigorbranding Maybe a better husband, better father, better businessman, a better employer, better ah a friend. I mean, and I i mean that. 30:32.27 Stephen Baldi and human 30:33.29 vigorbranding Yeah. It’s just a better human. And I think a lot of people see it from the outside and think it’s all, it’s a bunch of guys didn’t talk about how many cars they have and where they want vacation. It’s not that at all. 30:40.24 Stephen Baldi It’s not that it’s a transformational community, you know, having a high trust network is invaluable. 30:40.92 vigorbranding You know, it’s, you know, it’s a, it is, it is. 30:47.41 vigorbranding Yep. Yeah. Someone’s got your back, right? You can always pick up that phone and call your, one of your folks and just, they got your back. No, that’s yeah. 30:54.39 Stephen Baldi And it’s nobody, and it’s nobody, nothing, never. And to have that level of confidentiality is special. 30:57.03 vigorbranding That’s right. Yep. Yeah. Yeah, that’s that’s awesome. That’s all good for you. I had no idea. That’s fantastic. um So, but now I’m going to do a little ploy here. You got to go and you should go to Austin this year to the food and beverage round table. 31:10.60 vigorbranding I mean, if you can check it out, it’ll be, I think it’s in in January, you know, I’ll probably be speaking there, but you should go. 31:14.55 Stephen Baldi OK. 31:16.84 vigorbranding I mean, you know, I’d love to meet you in person. It’d be fantastic. 31:18.67 Stephen Baldi Yeah, I’d love that. 31:18.88 vigorbranding Anyway, so could we do, 31:20.42 Stephen Baldi Maybe we’ll be celebrating a Phillies World Series by then. 31:22.74 vigorbranding Oh man, you’re making me nervous. um I hope so. I hope you’re right. I hope you’re right. But our company, we do it we do an annual food and beverage trends report every year. We’ve been doing them for like, jeez, 15, 16 years. And so a lot of times we launched it at the food and beverage round table. So it’s always really cool stuff. 31:40.96 Stephen Baldi Awesome, send me an invite and I’ll be there. 31:41.00 vigorbranding um Yeah. All right. Well, definitely. I’ll make sure you get it after this, after our conversation here. So, okay. When you go to a restaurant, you you have a choice between human interaction or self ordering kiosks. I know that, you know, you guys need to be really ah high speed, efficient and all that. What what do you, what do you prefer? 31:58.57 Stephen Baldi Well, it depends, right? Deploying technology is a strategy that ah should be done with intention and asking the question, and then what, right? 32:12.55 Stephen Baldi um I will tell you a story. So the first time we experimented with self ordering technology was in 2008 at JFK airport terminal five. 32:24.65 Stephen Baldi And we deployed at the time iPads um at our Dunkin Donuts because we thought, you know, technology is moving in this way and it’s fun and it’s cool, but nobody wants to walk up to a counter and order a coffee by pressing buttons. 32:29.75 vigorbranding Mm-hmm. Yep. 32:39.85 vigorbranding Mm-hmm. 32:44.46 Stephen Baldi You know, communicating to a cashier, ah medium cream and sugar takes about 15 seconds. When you are forcing someone to press hot coffee, then medium, then sugar, then extra sugar, like that’s just, we found that that was a ah strategy that wasn’t ah successfully deployed at that time. 32:58.57 vigorbranding who 33:05.34 Stephen Baldi now That was back in 2008. I will say trends have matured since then and so there is an opportunity to have self ordering technology at a place like Dunkin Donuts and people have learned to navigate it quickly. um You have hot buttons for certain high usage items and so I say to people all the time because my friends question me, whenever they see an iPad, they assume that that means that that technology has taken someone’s job. And what I try to educate people on is that you know if you deploy technology in a intentional way, in a smart way, it allows you to redirect 33:45.29 Stephen Baldi what you would have otherwise spent on front of house and the back of house. 33:46.57 vigorbranding Mm 33:49.72 Stephen Baldi Or maybe you’re deploying it at a ah leadership level that’s multi-unit capable. 33:49.78 vigorbranding hmm. 33:55.24 Stephen Baldi And so it’s not necessarily ah replacing jobs, but allowing savvy business leaders to take that investment and redeploy it in other ways. I will tell you that the benefit is you know technology doesn’t call out. Sometimes you have to reboot the system, but it always upsells. It always asks you if you want a dessert and always ask you if you want to package your burger with fries. And so to be able to grow your top line ticket, ah that’s only going to drive bottom line outcomes, which allows a business owner like me to look at expansion, to go into other cities, to be able to bring other people along with us because the business is growing. And so there’s opportunity beyond just taking someone’s order. And so 34:40.31 Stephen Baldi Technology is something you have to look at in parallel kind of decision making. But I enjoy it. There’s some concepts that it resonates more significantly than others. But I think there’s a balance and there needs to be a balance of both going forward. I don’t think we’re ever going to have an industry that is exclusively technology or self ordering driven. um And I think you go in with a bunch of assumptions, you understand how your customers respond to it, and then you be agile enough to adjust appropriately. 35:08.96 vigorbranding Yeah, I mean, it makes a lot of sense. And i I concur. I mean, you know, I don’t want to wait in a massive line, especially from an airport. But, you know, just ordering, pre-ordering and all that kind of stuff isn’t all that funny either. 35:19.32 vigorbranding So it’s just you with that happy balance. You know, I do like talking to somebody and, you know, because I talk a lot, I guess. But plus, I always ask for some ice in my coffee just a little bit. I don’t want nice coffee. 35:27.30 Stephen Baldi There you go. 35:27.67 vigorbranding So it’s a little tough to explain to an iPad, you know, so very soft. 35:31.57 Stephen Baldi To drop it into a couple of cubes, yeah. 35:32.20 vigorbranding Whoops. Yeah. Yeah. I don’t want to burn my, burn my mouth. So now I know you have at least one daughter, correct? 35:38.70 Stephen Baldi I’d have two daughters and a son. 35:39.87 vigorbranding Two daughters. right All right. Sorry. There we go. 35:41.61 Stephen Baldi 26, 25, and eight. 35:41.75 vigorbranding This will be great then. Wow. Wow. 35:45.67 Stephen Baldi I started over, Michael. 35:45.74 vigorbranding A little gap here. 35:46.59 Stephen Baldi I started over. 35:47.16 vigorbranding You had a little gap here. 35:48.55 Stephen Baldi had I had a couple of gap years. 35:48.93 vigorbranding A couple of gap years. i well so I have two daughters, 26 as of last week and coming coming up on 29. The reason I bring up these families is you know we all know we love all our kids the same. 36:01.78 Stephen Baldi No, we don’t. 36:01.79 vigorbranding But on any but okay but on any given day on any given day, depending on the phone call, depending on the visit, there’s certainly ones that we like other better than others. 36:02.97 Stephen Baldi No, we don’t. 36:09.94 vigorbranding Michael Alex, it happens it back and forth all the time, just in case you’re listening. Those are my daughters. um 36:14.34 Stephen Baldi Love it. 36:15.04 vigorbranding so you know, we talked about pot belly, we talked about smash burger, we talked about dunking, we talked about timber, we talked about founding farmers, am I missing any any ends? 36:25.21 Stephen Baldi There you go. 36:27.03 vigorbranding Which one? 36:27.28 Stephen Baldi It’s the end. Yeah. 36:27.84 vigorbranding Which one’s your favorite? What’s your favorite kid there? 36:29.64 Stephen Baldi My favorite. Wow. You’re going to force me to say that. 36:33.77 vigorbranding Yeah, yeah. 36:34.15 Stephen Baldi Well, I will tell you, because I don’t know if any of our franchisors are going to listen to this part. I love them all equally, and I am privileged to be able to operate them. I will tell you the one that probably um sits deeply in my soul as a person ah is probably Dunkin’ Donuts. 36:55.45 vigorbranding Nice. 36:55.85 Stephen Baldi and And I’ll tell you Dunkin’ Donuts because when I was growing up ah in Southwest Philadelphia off of Cobbs Creek Parkway, I had family that lived out by the airport. And in order to get into that area of the city, you have to travel on Cobbs Creek Parkway. 37:11.63 Stephen Baldi And there’s a Dunkin Donuts on the corner of Cobbs Creek Parkway and I can’t remember the cross street, but it’s been there for close to probably 30 or 40 years. I’m 48 and I can’t remember a time when it wasn’t there. And I remember seeing that Dunkin Donuts and thinking how rich that franchisee must be to have that score. 37:30.65 Stephen Baldi Now I know that owning a single franchise is not necessarily a path to generational wealth, but it did, that Dunkin Donuts did put in my mind like what was possible. 37:40.22 vigorbranding Yeah, that’s cool. 37:40.70 Stephen Baldi um And so to be able to be now a 14 year franchisee of that brand, um which is our longest franchise relationship, it’s pretty special. 37:46.48 vigorbranding Super. 37:50.20 vigorbranding That’s cool. And you know, I’ll say this from the, from the branding side of the world. Uh, what a phenomenal job. I mean, Duncan’s been around forever. I mean, at one point time it was getting a little tired. It was sort of just fading in the woodwork. 38:01.35 vigorbranding And we know, I mean, all these brands, I mean, they come on strong. They’re, they’re always started somewhere. There’s this regional thing. And then they become these big brands and is they, they struggle to stay relevant. 38:10.04 Stephen Baldi Right? 38:12.62 vigorbranding Right. And I think Duncan has just done a remarkable job. 38:16.08 Stephen Baldi We have, yeah. 38:16.24 vigorbranding of staying relevant i mean from their graphic design from their marketing their branding to their advertising and all the cool stuff they’ve done that you did you did they blew it away they they absolutely did and yep 38:22.42 Stephen Baldi I mean, we had the best Super Bowl commercial in my opinion. I mean, Ben Affleck and J.Lo, they did their thing. And Mark Wahlberg, it like it was it was a beautiful commercial. 38:33.65 vigorbranding Yeah, and you know, it just shows like when you have passion for something, and those guys certainly have passion for for for that part of the world and ah from the Boston area. I just think it’s it was exceptional. In fact, ironically, we have at at our holding company level, Pavone Group, we have the longest running, okay, this is no kidding, the longest running Super Bowl commercial voting mechanism called spotbowl.com. 38:56.66 vigorbranding So every year we get 38:57.28 Stephen Baldi OK. 38:59.26 vigorbranding you know, thousands and thousands and thousands of votes from around the world, and people vote for their favorite Super Bowl commercial as it’s being played, as the game is being played. And then the the national media outlets reach out to us, and then we tell them the results. 39:13.08 vigorbranding And Dunkin Donuts was was certainly a stellar winner. 39:13.26 Stephen Baldi OK. 39:16.02 Stephen Baldi It was and had to be at the top. 39:17.26 vigorbranding Yeah, it was awesome. 39:17.88 Stephen Baldi Come on out. Tell me Michael it was at the top. 39:19.04 vigorbranding Yeah, yeah. It was, well, I’m looking over here at my guy that runs it. it was It was the top one. Yeah, it was, it definitely was. 39:24.42 Stephen Baldi It was, it I thought it was. 39:25.10 vigorbranding Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. 39:25.89 Stephen Baldi There you go. Thank you for, thank you for phoning your friend and getting confirmation. 39:26.59 vigorbranding It was it was awesome. 39:29.55 Stephen Baldi It was a pretty special advertising. 39:31.41 vigorbranding Yeah. 39:31.85 Stephen Baldi And yeah, I didn’t get a chance to order my Duncan jumpsuit, but I’m sure it’s in the mail somewhere. 39:36.72 vigorbranding Yeah, there you go. there That’s that that everything. 39:38.41 Stephen Baldi Maybe Duncan corporate will see this and they’ll send me one. 39:38.96 vigorbranding Although. yeah Yeah, all the merch, everything they did around that was super cool. and the take the outtakes from the 39:43.99 Stephen Baldi Super cool. 39:46.35 vigorbranding you know It’s funny too because when it comes to this marketing stuff, like it used to be just a TV spot. and The reason I looked over to ask Dave, Dave’s the guy you spoke to. He’s the one that that kind of heads up this podcast. He’s also the one that really runs Spopple. We’ve been doing this so long that In the beginning, we didn’t know anything. 40:03.48 vigorbranding In other words, they would the game it was all about the game. The game was played. And then people realized, well, people love the commercials. So we never knew, like like you and everybody else, we just sit there and watch the game, cut the commercial. Oh, it’s a commercial for fill in the blank. 40:15.61 vigorbranding Now, they release the commercials to us ahead of time. 40:15.73 Stephen Baldi Yeah. 40:18.45 vigorbranding They tell us what it’s about. They send us outtakes. They give us information. Because they realize it, because it’s a couple million dollars for 30 seconds, that they need to get as much juice out of the you know squeeze as much juice out of this as possible so they want to know they put stuff online they do teasers and it’s it’s turned into a an event unto itself and uh we’re really proud to have been a part of it so it’s kind of funny that you brought that up that’s cool stuff all 40:39.58 Stephen Baldi Yeah. Now I will tell you my all time favorite Super Bowl commercial. 40:44.35 vigorbranding right uh 40:45.67 Stephen Baldi Now I remember the star, but I don’t even remember the brand. 40:49.95 vigorbranding -oh 40:50.06 Stephen Baldi Remember the the commercial with the kid and the Star Wars mask and he was going around zapping things and he went and he zapped the car and the car started. 40:55.24 vigorbranding Volkswagen. Yeah. Yeah. 40:58.28 Stephen Baldi That was my all-time favorite more commercial. 40:58.46 vigorbranding Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That’s great. Yeah. That was ah that was a Volkswagen spot. That was a fantastic spot. 41:03.91 Stephen Baldi Fantastic commercial. 41:03.93 vigorbranding It was a fantastic. You know, I’ll i’ll tell you mine next. i’m I’m a simp and I, you know, ah the Budweiser commercials and 41:11.83 Stephen Baldi Oh yeah. 41:13.17 vigorbranding There was one though in particular where the guy, you know, he raises these horses and it goes on to be a Clydesdale and it it takes off and the horse leaves and there’s a parade. And I almost get choked up thinking about it. 41:24.28 vigorbranding It was so well done. There’s a parade, the guy standing there to parade and the horse sees him, breaks away, chases him down on the road. Oh my gosh. It was, it was, I had to do a live TV commercial. I had to do a live segment on the news about the the best TV spot and and they they, you know, they played it and I wasn’t expecting them to play it. 41:40.60 vigorbranding I’m like, I had tears going down my face. 41:42.56 Stephen Baldi Oh, you got emotional. 41:42.51 vigorbranding I’m like, That’s my favorite. 41:43.64 Stephen Baldi Oh, look at you. 41:45.41 vigorbranding I still get emotional. i think but i think it I think it was the best all-time i mean story. It was just cute. so anyway That’s right, man. 41:50.70 Stephen Baldi And the best story always wins, Michael. Best story always wins. 41:53.25 vigorbranding That’s right. right yeah Yeah, you know, we always tell people a brand is a promise, ah but you have to tell a story. You have to draw a motion, make them laugh, make them cry, make them feel something about your brand. And that’s how you break through. And it’s always important, you know, a lot of times clients will say stuff, um you know, hey we just want to sell more, we got to do this, we got to do that. And and really it comes down to ah the fact that you’ve you got to do great creative to break through to get people’s attention. 42:19.09 vigorbranding So, well, I have a couple more questions for you and I want to hit them for sure. 42:21.03 Stephen Baldi Okay. 42:22.25 vigorbranding So now look, ah we talked about the airports you’re in, in the in the in the greater DC area, some of the most, I mean, they’re they’re busy, they’re they’re important, they’re huge. Other airports, I mean, you have great concessions in those airports. 42:34.37 vigorbranding Other airports that you think have great concessions in the country? 42:37.16 Stephen Baldi Yeah, I will tell you, Atlanta, one of the busiest airports in the world, definitely in this country. 42:42.95 vigorbranding Oh yeah, oh yeah. yeah 42:45.86 Stephen Baldi um And then Houston, Orlando, Chicago, Charlotte, these are all markets that we kind of look at. 42:49.80 vigorbranding Mm hmm. Oh yeah. 42:54.54 vigorbranding Massive hubs. 42:56.51 Stephen Baldi um It’s important for us to be in high demand airport systems, because you never know how the world’s going to, 43:02.80 vigorbranding Yeah. 43:05.21 Stephen Baldi respond. And Morgan Hausl is one of the people who I look to for kind of strategic direction. 43:12.04 vigorbranding Mm hmm. 43:13.49 Stephen Baldi I’m thinking about my business. And one thing he always says is that as a business leader, if you’re only planning for the risk and threats that you can predict, you’re probably missing the biggest one. 43:24.90 vigorbranding Oh, yeah. 43:25.41 Stephen Baldi um And so how we kind of shelter ourselves from that is we go into high demand markets. So even if an airline, a legacy airline like an American or United or a Delta or a Southwest ah decides that they no longer want to operate in that market, there’ll be another legacy carrier chomping at the bit together. 43:44.09 vigorbranding Sure. 43:44.40 Stephen Baldi And so that’s one of our strategy when we’re looking to grow nationally is to look at high demand airport markets. 43:44.77 vigorbranding Sure. Mm hmm. 43:51.29 Stephen Baldi And those are just a few that I named. 43:53.58 vigorbranding I’m a big fan of Morgan has effect. We have him speaking at our, at our YPO. He’s, he’s one of, I think he might even be next month’s speaker. So I’m really, really, are you really, that’s all his book. 44:00.64 Stephen Baldi ah We’re bringing them in on the 13th of November. Yeah. 44:04.00 vigorbranding His book’s incredible. Incredible. I made my daughter’s read it. So, um, what’s next for balding management group. And mean we talked about in other airports. What’s, what’s next for you? What’s what’s your vision? Where are you were are you hoping to go? 44:13.26 Stephen Baldi my My vision is to grow the tent and plant trees that I may never even know their shade, um because that’s when I think a community and when a business is thriving is when you’re willing to do things that you might not be able to see to fruition. And so we’re trying to build a company, not trying, we are building a company that will rise the tide for all the boats. I want to create another 20, 25 stories just like mine. 44:41.46 vigorbranding Yeah. 44:41.62 Stephen Baldi um I can invest and grow my company so that it’s beneficial and creates generational wealth for me, but I also have the opportunity to listen to the individuals whose stories might not necessarily be taken to the top because they’re not fully formed or well articulated. 44:59.34 Stephen Baldi I try to look for those people, because I was once that person. 45:00.66 vigorbranding yeah 45:02.15 Stephen Baldi I was the property manager in the office, and Cynthia Garber came and tapped me on the shoulder, which she did not have to do. 45:02.50 vigorbranding yep 45:08.96 Stephen Baldi And so I’m trying to identify those voices in our companies, the people in leadership, but also the people who we don’t necessarily identify with immediately, because a lot of our workforce our ESL where English is a second language. 45:24.24 Stephen Baldi And so verbal communication is a challenge, but I don’t want that to get in the way of us knowing or identifying the next star in our organization. 45:24.69 vigorbranding Yeah. Yep. 45:33.22 Stephen Baldi So we’re doing things to kind of bridge the gap between ah those verbal communication kind of challenges so that every voice that’s in our organization can be heard because listen. 45:44.32 Stephen Baldi I won’t pour a cup of coffee or flip a burger or roll a pretzel today, but that’s how our business runs. And so I want to give opportunity and visibility to those individuals in a very intentional way. 45:53.22 vigorbranding Sure. 45:59.67 Stephen Baldi So that’s what’s next ah for the company. And I think if you know you pay attention to the pennies and the nickels, the dollars make sense. And I believe if you focus on organizationally, the people who may be at the bottom of the ladder, you’ll grow the tent and the business in a way where there’s more opportunity created for everyone who’s valuable. 46:20.08 Stephen Baldi And so that’s what I’m committed to, Michael. 46:21.72 vigorbranding Fantastic. a Question. Have you ever, have you ever spoke to the woman who tapped you on the shoulder? Have you ever told her? 46:27.38 Stephen Baldi i I mention Cynthia Garber every time I get the yeah opportunity to share how she interceded in my life. 46:30.01 vigorbranding Yeah. 46:33.70 Stephen Baldi And we text probably once or twice a year, but she knows how important she is to me. 46:36.60 vigorbranding Oh, good. That’s awesome. 46:39.09 Stephen Baldi um We haven’t seen each other in person probably 10 years, but I tell her story every time I speak about my journey because it was instrumental. 46:44.19 vigorbranding That’s awesome. 46:47.22 Stephen Baldi So she’s aware. 46:47.33 vigorbranding Hey, that’s got to get you to pay yeah pay it forward, pay it back. And you got to make sure that you yeah you acknowledge the folks that helped you get there. 46:51.02 Stephen Baldi and of pay for 46:54.07 vigorbranding That’s, that’s huge. 46:54.84 Stephen Baldi And you know what’s remarkable, Michael, over the 18 years that I’ve been in the business, 16 years leading this company, every now and then I’ll get a text message or I’ll get a direct ah message on LinkedIn of someone who worked for our organization and matriculated somewhere else. 47:11.24 Stephen Baldi And I’ve lost contact with, and they’ve done the same for me. 47:12.80 vigorbranding here 47:14.06 Stephen Baldi So I know how special it is. 47:15.49 vigorbranding That’s cool. 47:15.94 Stephen Baldi And so whenever I get the opportunity, I try to tell people how they’ve impacted my life. 47:16.98 vigorbranding Yeah. 47:19.90 vigorbranding Very cool. well Stephen, I have one one last question. You’ve been phenomenal by the way. I can talk for you for hours. You’re you’re awesome. ah One last question. All right. And can’t you can’t pick pot belly or one of your, you can’t pick one of your brands, but if you had one final meal, what would you eat and why? 47:35.33 Stephen Baldi Oh, this is the easy, this is the easy. 47:36.24 vigorbranding Oh, good. All right. Sometimes people struggle with this. so 47:38.51 Stephen Baldi No, it’s not a struggle. Michael, I’m from Philadelphia. If I gave any answer other than a gym steak with whizzing American, with fried onions, hot peppers, pickles, and ketchup, I would be doing my city a disservice. 47:42.03 vigorbranding Yeah. Okay. Oh, nice. 47:52.46 vigorbranding There you go. That’s good. 47:53.31 Stephen Baldi So that’s what it would be. 47:53.56 vigorbranding Good. Great. ah Great answer. Great answer. It’s funny, you know, I, yeah, come on, man. 47:56.67 Stephen Baldi North and South, if you haven’t been, you should go the next time you’re in Philadelphia. 48:00.24 vigorbranding I’ve been, I had a gym. 48:01.51 Stephen Baldi I’m not talking to you, I’m talking to your audience. 48:02.84 vigorbranding and Okay. I was going to say, I had a gym stick last week and I’m not making that up. We had, I don’t know if I mentioned, but we had, uh, brought in agencies, independent agencies, all from all around North America, i guys from Puerto Rico, Mexico, Canada, all over the continental U S come to Philadelphia. 48:19.70 vigorbranding and during happy. We took them to dinners. We took them. We treated them right. We showed them the city independence and all that stuff. But when we had the happy hour at my offices, I had pats and I had gyms and we had little little forks and we did a cheesesteak sampling program. 48:32.46 vigorbranding You know, yeah, they you you do know who won. 48:32.82 Stephen Baldi Oh, and I know who won. 48:35.35 vigorbranding So I know, you know, I know, you know, hey, I’ll throw another one out there. 48:36.36 Stephen Baldi I won’t make you name it, but I know, I know who won. 48:41.02 vigorbranding Pat or Tony Luke’s down on Oregon Avenue. 48:42.86 Stephen Baldi Oh, he looks great. 48:43.85 vigorbranding The original. 48:44.04 Stephen Baldi De La Sandro’s Mama’s Pizzeria on Belmont Avenue. 48:44.87 vigorbranding Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. tell sound good You know, you you know. 48:48.67 Stephen Baldi I haven’t lived in the city before the years, but it’s still, I know where to go. 48:48.76 vigorbranding Yeah, man. Yeah, you know, those, those, those are legacy places, you know, and and yeah, it’s all good, all good. 48:54.82 Stephen Baldi For sure. 48:56.68 vigorbranding In fact, you know what, that’ll be my happy meal. The Phillies will be in the playoffs and I do, I slide down into and get a cheesesteak before the game. It’s a, it’s a part of the whole shtick. So I’m excited about it. 49:04.48 Stephen Baldi And you also have to get a wild, wild fruit punch. Come on now. 49:06.31 vigorbranding Oh, there you go. 49:07.00 Stephen Baldi You gotta round it out. 49:07.01 vigorbranding There you go. Yeah, that’s, that’s that’s funny. Well, Steven, it was fantastic. I really appreciate your time. Uh, and it was wonderful talking to you. 49:14.87 Stephen Baldi I appreciate the invitation. And listen, good luck with the rest of your forktails going forward. It seems like you’ve had an incredible run with the amount of episodes that you’ve already had. And I hope you you know multiply that by 10, if that is your intention and desire. 49:27.00 vigorbranding Thanks. That’s awesome. Appreciate you. vigorbrandin00:01.99 vigorbranding Hey folks, welcome to Fork Tales, and I’m excited. Today’s guest is Stephen Baldy. He’s the founder and president of Baldy Management Group. Baldy Management Group is an airport concessions and management consulting company. It’s a mouthful there. ah Manages concessions in Reagan National Airport, JFK International Airport, and Dulles International Airport. ah Stephen, welcome to Fork Tales, and thank you so much for joining us. 00:25.82 Stephen Baldi Michael, thank you for having me. I’m looking forward to the conversation. 00:29.01 vigorbranding So for those that don’t know, all of these are located in the sort of DC Metro, Baltimore or down at DC Metro area, right? 00:36.21 Stephen Baldi Correct. 00:37.04 vigorbranding Yeah. 00:37.19 Stephen Baldi Yeah, even though Philadelphia is my hometown, I’ve been in Washington DC for almost 30 years. um So this is home base for us. 00:46.37 vigorbranding yeah Well, you you you know, I have a little trick question because that was going to be my first question. Are you still a Philly sports fan? I mean, do you bleed Eagle Green? 00:53.03 Stephen Baldi if If you cut me, it would be nothing but green. I live in Washington, DC. 00:56.48 vigorbranding OK, beautiful. 00:57.88 Stephen Baldi My heart is in Philadelphia. 00:59.81 vigorbranding Beautiful, beautiful. Wow. There’s, there’s guys, I don’t even know what they call themselves these days. these’s The commanders, the Washington football club. 01:04.91 Stephen Baldi oh The Washington football team, they’re all. 01:05.40 vigorbranding I mean, they’re just, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just, it’s irrelevant. It’s irrelevant. 01:10.11 Stephen Baldi Yeah, Michael, my family would disown me if anything other than my ah zip code changed as far as my hometown affiliation. 01:10.06 vigorbranding So that’s fantastic. Hey, it’s awesome. You got to bring, I had a gentleman come in, uh, from, uh, Oregon last week to speak to a bunch of advertising agencies from North America. We hosted them in Philadelphia and this guy was so excited. He was, he, he, he came from there, but he was Philly through and through. So everything in his presentation tied back to a Philly icon, something about Philadelphia that was iconic. And, you know, ah in our company, we’re, 01:44.34 vigorbranding We’re very proud that we’re an independent advertising agencies. We have an agency called Vigor and an agency called Quench. Vigor’s restaurant branding. Quench is food and beverage marketing. And the whole thing was around independence and how it’s how important it is. 01:57.06 vigorbranding And he had all these great icons from like Nick Foles to, ah you know, ah Mike Schmidt to the Fanatic to, I mean, Will Smith. 02:07.11 vigorbranding I mean, he just went through all the Philadelphia stuff, you know, the Liberty Bell and everything else. and So it was cool. It was cool. 02:11.77 Stephen Baldi um I love it. I’ll tell you an interesting story about Nick Foles. So I had a really good feeling about our Super Bowl run, even though you know Carson Wentz, who was leading as the MVP that year, went down. And the Friday before the Super Bowl, something told me to go online and buy a Nick Foles autograph helmet. 02:33.57 vigorbranding Wow. 02:34.10 Stephen Baldi And I did. Now, I did not expedite the shipping, Michael. So it was not in my possession on Monday after we had won the Super Bowl. And many of my friends said that helmet’s never going to show up, but it did. 02:47.65 Stephen Baldi So I bought it for $99. 02:47.77 vigorbranding That’s awesome. 02:49.77 Stephen Baldi And I can tell you, it’s it’s worth a lot more than that. 02:51.92 vigorbranding That’s awesome. Yeah, it’s worth a lot to people in Philadelphia. So it’s fantastic. And the pride of that city runs deep. So alright, so tell us about Baldy enter Management Group and what it does what inspired you to get into the airport concession games. I mean, you started I think in residential property, right? 03:06.90 Stephen Baldi I did. I started in residential property management in 2002. And I started in airports in 2005. And it was all kind of serendipitous. I had a really ah prickly history before starting in 2002. 03:23.22 Stephen Baldi at Kettler Management, which managed tax credit properties, but also Class A luxury communities. 03:29.04 vigorbranding Okay. 03:29.23 Stephen Baldi And I had a tenant coming to my office. And she said, Steven, I see you engaging with the residents and how you handle issues. And I think you should be doing more. And I thought to myself, like this woman doesn’t know me. 03:39.92 Stephen Baldi Yeah, I just fixed her fireplace. But who are you to come in my office and tell me what I should be doing? And at the time, I was making $22,000 a year with a Georgetown degree. And the job that they wanted me to interview for paid $85,000 a year. 03:54.21 vigorbranding wow 03:54.39 Stephen Baldi So as you can assume, Michael, goal I took the interview, I got the job. And so for three years, I worked in development for Westfield, which most people know as shopping mall developers, they have an airport division. 04:05.82 vigorbranding Hmm. Ah. 04:07.99 Stephen Baldi And so I was responsible for the redevelopment of national airport here in Washington, DC from 2005. to 2008. And then I leveraged a relationship with OTG Management, which has a very large presence at Philadelphia International, um into a joint venture relationship and actually launched the company, BMG, in 2008. And two thousand and eight and it’s we’ve not looked back since. 04:31.36 vigorbranding That’s fantastic. you know It’s funny. I really i don’t know you. we’re We’re really talking for the first time. I can tell right away, like youre you have a positive attitude, and I can tell you’re engaging. And so I could see how someone would see you in action and be like, hey, you know you you could do more. like You can be a part of something bigger. And it’s obviously what’s happened, which is it’s awesome. I’m a big proponent of attitude. I mean, i I love to know where people went to school. I mean, if you if I interview you, I want to see your brains on the table. 04:58.39 vigorbranding But I really want to know what your personality is like. I want to know about your attitude. I want to know ah how ah how much of a ah person you are that wants to win and be engaging and help people. And it’s ah like it comes through with you right away. 05:09.91 vigorbranding And that’s ah it’s cool. 05:10.18 Stephen Baldi I appreciate that. 05:11.03 vigorbranding now it’s it’s 05:11.32 Stephen Baldi Yeah, i’ll I’ll take it back if you if you want me to. So ah back in 1988, I was turning 13 and I begged my mom for a pair of Air Jordan sneakers. 05:24.58 Stephen Baldi And you’ll remember when Gordon’s first came out, ah they were the first shoe over a hundred dollars. 05:25.72 vigorbranding Oh, yeah. 05:29.85 vigorbranding Oh, yes, they were. 05:30.36 Stephen Baldi yeah I grew up in a upper lower class household and it was a stretch for my mom to purchase these shoes. 05:31.49 vigorbranding Yep. 05:37.09 vigorbranding Mm hmm. 05:38.21 Stephen Baldi But I begged her and I begged her and I begged her and and she ended up buying them for me. And she said, you know, I just want you to be safe. Well, you probably can assume where the story goes. Within like a month of getting these sneakers, I was an attempted robbery, and I acted very violently to defend myself, and it resulted in me getting expelled from the school that I was at. 05:59.94 Stephen Baldi And as a punishment, ah rather than letting me play basketball for the entire summer, my mom forced me to go to the reading math and basketball clinic at Friend Central, which is a very prominent independent school on the main line of Philadelphia. 06:14.39 vigorbranding Mm hmm. 06:14.96 Stephen Baldi And that decision changed my life. um I went from living in a predominantly all-Black neighborhood to a private school that I was the only Black male in my class. 06:25.11 vigorbranding Wow. 06:25.74 Stephen Baldi And what it did was it changed my perspective of what was accessible. like I had never seen a computer before. 06:31.75 vigorbranding Right. 06:32.14 Stephen Baldi And at this school, there was in a computer lab where we could sit down and navigate things. 06:34.40 vigorbranding Yeah. 06:36.15 Stephen Baldi And so going to Friends Central, having my mom make that leap of faith changed my trajectory in many ways. I matriculated from there to Georgetown University here in Washington, DC, which is how I got. 06:48.20 Stephen Baldi to Washington DC. So I am a super Philadelphia sports fan, because not only am I from Philly, but Allen Iverson was my classmate at Georgetown University. 06:51.93 vigorbranding That’s awesome. 06:55.50 vigorbranding Is that right? 06:56.61 Stephen Baldi Yeah, we were the same class. 06:56.89 vigorbranding Wow. 06:57.61 Stephen Baldi And so, yeah, very cool. 06:58.33 vigorbranding That’s so cool. Yeah. 07:00.38 Stephen Baldi And so maya my commitment to making meaningful connections with people comes from way back then when I was forced to do it, not only because of who I am, but my circumstances. 07:00.74 vigorbranding AI. It’s legendary. 07:12.75 Stephen Baldi And I’ve tried to carry that out through my career and my life. 07:15.84 vigorbranding That’s fantastic. what a great That’s great. That’s a great story. you know it’s like It’s funny that on the Air Jordans, at that time, when they came out, and I can follow you on that. i know you You nailed it. You said the first sneaker that was over $100. My dad had ah this like mom and pop retail sporting store. We sold mostly like hockey stuff. We were from Hershey, Pennsylvania. 07:35.39 vigorbranding And I was working in a store in in Camp Hill and outside of Hershey. It’s up in the West Shore, they call it. Anyway, long story short, I was in the mall and we sold some sneakers and the Air Jordans came out and we had them on the wall. 07:48.37 vigorbranding And it was like, it was insane. $100 for a pair of sneakers. 07:52.08 Stephen Baldi Yeah. 07:52.28 vigorbranding And I mean, like, whereas I’ll say the average then was probably like on the high end was probably like 50, 55. 07:57.40 Stephen Baldi Yeah, for sure. 07:58.58 vigorbranding And this went right to 100. And it was funny, my dad, maybe that’s where I started learning about, and I really did learn a lot about marketing, working in retail, because you have to talk to people, you have to sell. And I think that’s the most important skill a person can learn. Communicating with people and learning how to sell, like, you know, at least present yourself, right? So I put these sneakers at the very top. I said, dad, you know what? ah I said, everybody wants the Air Jordans. Most people can’t afford them. 08:21.42 vigorbranding but everyone wants to come and look at it. So I always sell them the white, the white, men’s the body they’re like but you know, so for every one Air Jordan, I saw, I used to sell like 30 other pairs of shoes. 08:25.49 Stephen Baldi ah yeah 08:30.65 vigorbranding You know what I mean? 08:31.05 Stephen Baldi It’s been up in the store. It’s like a newspaper. People don’t necessarily want just the newspaper, at least the retailer does it, but they come in to buy the newspaper and then they buy the water, the soda, the candy. 08:33.13 vigorbranding That’s right. 08:39.73 vigorbranding That’s right. yeah I lured them in with the Air Jordans. I think we had like five parrot the most. I mean, we couldn’t afford, you know, it’s a little mom pop store. 08:46.41 Stephen Baldi Probably two sizes. 08:47.56 vigorbranding Yeah, right. That’s exactly right. So that’s funny. So okay, you talked about sports and and and you know, Philly and all that you you pride yourself on um being a local company and playing in front of the home crowd. 08:58.99 vigorbranding Talk a little bit about the the local connection in DC that you have. 09:02.34 Stephen Baldi Yeah, so I’ll tell you, when you fly into most airports, what people don’t automatically see, but being a former developer, I understand that any airport authority, when you land in their airport, they want you to know what city you are in. 09:18.24 Stephen Baldi So national brands are extremely important. So you’ll have your Dunkin’ Donuts. You’ll have your Pop-Belly’s, which are ah franchises that we operate. 09:22.12 vigorbranding Mm hmm. 09:25.89 Stephen Baldi But every airport wants you to have a sense of place. So when you fly into Philadelphia Airport, you’ll have a Jim Stakes, because that’s you know historical to that region. 09:34.38 vigorbranding Yeah. 09:34.93 Stephen Baldi When you fly into National Airport here, or Dallas International, you’ll have your South Blocks, which is an ASE base. com concept here in the DC. 09:45.49 Stephen Baldi You’ll have Ben’s Chili Bowl, which has been around since the 60s. 09:45.90 vigorbranding Mm hmm. Mm hmm. 09:49.41 Stephen Baldi And so we’ve prided ourselves from identifying and connecting with other founder-led brands, because I’m a founder. And nothing against a hired gun. 09:56.93 vigorbranding Mm hmm. 09:58.81 Stephen Baldi I know they are often effective at their job. But there’s something different about a founder-led company because you’ve built it. 10:06.95 vigorbranding Yeah. 10:07.27 Stephen Baldi it probably has more ah meaning to you behind just the bottom line um results that you drive. It’s personal. 10:15.52 vigorbranding Yeah. 10:15.69 Stephen Baldi And so we’ve developed very deep relationships with companies like founding farmers, with timber pizza, who are all local based companies here. And we expect to continue to grow it, not just in this region that we’re in, but as we grow into other markets to do the same. 10:30.68 vigorbranding Yeah, that’s that’s fantastic. And you nailed it. I mean, like, I’m a founder, I’m an entrepreneur. And you know, and ah again, wonderful folks that that work with me, I’m very, very, very lucky. But you know, for for most people, it’s their job, you know, their career, and and hopefully there’s a sense of of a family and a real relationship. 10:49.53 vigorbranding But for me, it’s my life. I mean, i am I am defined personally by this, which is probably pretty shallow. 10:51.05 Stephen Baldi right 10:54.86 vigorbranding I mean, i mean look, um I love my daughters. I’m a dad. I’m ah a husband. I love my family with all my heart, but I feel like I’m defined by my company and the what I’ve built. and and all of that And I just, you know, so again, I don’t know if that’s a bad thing or a good thing or whatever, but it’s just, it’s ah it’s a lot deeper, right? 11:11.93 vigorbranding When you found something and ah it’s it’s a lot deeper, everyone thinks it has to do with like money and stuff, and it really doesn’t. 11:12.49 Stephen Baldi Right. For sure. 11:17.73 vigorbranding It’s a it’s really about, you know, sort of like your life’s life’s work. and You know, you know, I get I get the most excitement out of seeing the growth of the folks in the company. ah It’s great to see the brands grow and the companies grow. 11:30.42 vigorbranding But I really get a kick out of of seeing the folks that have been here a long time and and all that. So anyway, that’s just that’s me. 11:35.91 Stephen Baldi right 11:36.26 vigorbranding But I just I totally I totally concur with what you’re saying as far as the founder led. I mean, that’s that’s fantastic. 11:41.40 Stephen Baldi Yeah, at some point as a founder, you most likely had to put something at risk that meant something to you. 11:47.14 vigorbranding Yeah. 11:47.50 Stephen Baldi Whether it’s personal guaranteeing, first leverage to build the company or, you know, having to bail it out because you run into a pandemic, which we all face back in 2020. 11:47.75 vigorbranding Oh, yeah. Yeah. 11:55.18 vigorbranding All right. 11:57.80 Stephen Baldi um Oftentimes you can’t just walk from that business and matriculate to another W2 position because this is yours. And so I love when I can connect with founders. 12:04.69 vigorbranding Yeah. 12:07.41 Stephen Baldi I’ll work with non-founders also, but there’s something unique about the journey we’ve all been on. 12:09.54 vigorbranding Sure. 12:11.88 vigorbranding Yeah, absolutely. So let’s let’s talk a little bit. I just so folks know, I mean, what’s really cool about this conversation is I, ah you know, with vigor, we work with restaurant brands, right? 12:22.32 vigorbranding So we’re very familiar with restaurant brands. And you you have brands like Potbelly, Smashburger. You said founding farmers soon to come. ah Timber Pizza, Dunkin, I mean, some some household names. 12:33.94 vigorbranding I don’t know if I’m um yeah any ants. 12:34.26 Stephen Baldi On the end, don’t forget on the end, this is what else we have. 12:35.99 vigorbranding No, I can’t actually. Yeah, we actually worked on any answers. We have an agency called quench that a branding agency, Food and Beverage, that that actually worked with Auntie Anne’s because they started here in Lancaster. 12:40.96 Stephen Baldi Okay. 12:45.88 vigorbranding hu Yeah, and I got to meet Anne Byler in the beginning. 12:45.98 Stephen Baldi They did. 12:48.81 vigorbranding So, Auntie Anne is actually a person and she’s a wonderful lady and It was a really really awesome to meet her and and and what a she was so she’s a very philanthropic lady very very ah ah Generous and very successful very so she’s got a phenomenal story as well. But so yeah, I certainly won’t leave the auntie hands out But you so you have all these great brands um Talk a little bit about I mean, you know, you said somewhere founded by they you know the founders and all that what’s it like to to manage all these different brands and 13:18.00 Stephen Baldi I’ll tell you, it’s a dynamic environment. Airports are a wonderful place to do business. Again, I share with you briefly how I matriculated into them, but once you end up in this kind of ecosystem, it’s hard to walk away. 13:33.35 Stephen Baldi We get the privilege of serving the traveling public every day. And what’s special about that are the passengers are dynamic. There are people who are going on business trips. There are people who are going on vacations. There are people who are going to be celebrated and there are people who are going to, you know, 13:51.28 Stephen Baldi usher people off into a transition of life. And we get to meet and connect with them all. And so I tell our crew members that we have the privilege of participating in whatever journey people are on every day. 14:03.68 Stephen Baldi And then the following day, we get a whole new group of people coming through. 14:06.48 vigorbranding yeah yeah 14:07.36 Stephen Baldi So that’s dynamic in the industries are small. I will tell you it’s about a $8 billion industry nationally in the United States, food and beverage and airports. 14:14.57 vigorbranding Yeah. Yeah. 14:19.40 Stephen Baldi But the industry is really controlled by about 20 key companies. And within those 20 companies, you probably have 50 total key players. 14:23.32 vigorbranding yeah 14:27.50 Stephen Baldi And so we know each other. you know You typically don’t leave the industry. Your business card may change. So you may go from company to company, but it’s a small ecosystem. And so I’ve enjoyed being in the industry now. 14:40.58 Stephen Baldi 18 years. I started when I was two. ah But it’s a buy it’s been an extraordinary 18 years, except for some of the challenges like COVID. But you know for the people who were able and blessed to push through it, I think we have a different perspective on what we can be and what we should be in the businesses that we lead. To your point, 15:00.50 Stephen Baldi um being defined by your business is not necessarily shallow, but there’s levels, there’s there’s depth to what we do. 15:08.62 vigorbranding Yeah. 15:08.91 Stephen Baldi And I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to swim in those depths ah for many years. 15:14.41 vigorbranding That’s awesome. We’ll get to COVID in a second, but I want to go back to airports. ah I’ll say, fortunately or unfortunately, I’m a customer. I’m in an airport every single week. So when you’re describing the people you see there, it’s like, yeah. 15:21.70 Stephen Baldi Awesome. 15:24.71 vigorbranding I mean, you know there’s it’s every single walk of life. Everyone seems to have a higher level of stress. 15:30.65 Stephen Baldi yeah 15:30.77 vigorbranding Everyone’s in a hurry, even when they’re not, or even worse, if someone’s really not in a hurry and they’re walking slow in the airport, that can actually be more frustrating and stressful. but ah So how do you how do you deal with that chaos? I mean, you got all these people that are amped up and nervous and they have anxiety or whatever, and then all of a sudden you’ve got to serve them and take them, you know, and represent these great brands and and and actually make the stuff and and in a and a fast time because they’re always running late, even if they’re not, they just think they’re always stressed. 15:56.04 Stephen Baldi Right. 15:59.20 vigorbranding Talk about airport concessions. Talk about that chaos. 16:02.08 Stephen Baldi Yeah, so you meet people where they are. And I will tell you, operating a street-side restaurant versus an airport, it’s a completely different sport. 16:09.79 vigorbranding I cannot imagine. 16:10.73 Stephen Baldi I tell ah these founder-led companies when they’re thinking about matriculating in the airports, I tell them you know it’s like playing high school varsity basketball. 16:10.80 vigorbranding yeah 16:19.70 Stephen Baldi And then you get drafted to the and NBA, like the speed, the requirements, you know, we have to go through the logistical um challenges of having every box that comes into your restaurant scan. 16:20.40 vigorbranding Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 16:31.21 Stephen Baldi Like Cisco’s not pulling up to our back door and delivering our ground beef for Smashburger. 16:31.53 vigorbranding Yeah. 16:34.05 vigorbranding Right. 16:35.85 Stephen Baldi Like it’s going through an X-ray, just like your luggage is. 16:38.86 vigorbranding Yeah. 16:39.39 Stephen Baldi um All of our crew members have to go through a 10 year federal background check. 16:44.03 vigorbranding Sure. 16:44.19 Stephen Baldi um There’s complexities to the business, which are to our challenge. But to me, it’s also kind of to our benefit, Michael, because it reduces my competition. Because unless you’re a serious player, you’re not trying to participate in airports. 16:54.14 vigorbranding Mhm. 16:56.81 Stephen Baldi And so for me, understanding those barriers and be able to navigate them are great. But from a day to day operation standpoint, We encourage our crew members just to meet people where they are. 17:07.93 Stephen Baldi um It may be the 50th time you’ve welcomed someone to our restaurant, but it’s the first time you’ve spoken to the person that’s in front of you. And again, you don’t know if they’re going on vacation or they’re going to a celebration of life to send a family member home. 17:16.31 vigorbranding right 17:22.96 Stephen Baldi Regardless, you should be additive to their experience and not adding additional stress or complications. Just try to deliver them fast, friendly, exceptional, 17:34.09 Stephen Baldi service because that’s our standard. That is our vision for the company, which is being exceptional is our standard. It’s not something that happens intermittently. 17:42.84 vigorbranding All right. 17:44.59 Stephen Baldi It happens all the time. And so we welcome the chaos. 17:45.78 vigorbranding Yeah. 17:48.05 Stephen Baldi You know, when it’s raining and snowing outside, even though your flights are delayed, we kind of welcome that because that means you get to hang out with you a little bit longer. 17:54.78 vigorbranding Yeah. Yeah. 17:55.63 Stephen Baldi So as long as we’re not canceling flights, if they’re just delayed, that’s kind of our sweet spot. 18:00.01 vigorbranding There you go. 18:00.65 Stephen Baldi So we welcome it all. 18:02.58 vigorbranding That’s awesome. You know, you you said something really interesting. So as I mentioned, Vigor is our agency that that does branding and marketing for restaurants. I know, and it’s not, you know, it’s common knowledge that turnover and and employees in the restaurant industry is like the biggest hassle, right? and Everyone’s dealing with that that turnover. But you just said something. they They have to go through this long, arduous process to get through. So do you find that you have, I’ll say, maybe better better qualified, better quality, 18:32.38 vigorbranding ah team members in your restaurants? 18:34.64 Stephen Baldi I would tell you that our hourly and even our salary leadership ah on some levels, they’re more committed because it is a personal investment to get through the process. 18:39.98 vigorbranding Mm-hmm. 18:45.54 Stephen Baldi And so, you know, typical food and beverage turnover is anywhere from 100 to 150%. And only ours is closer to like 30. 18:51.64 vigorbranding Right. 18:54.91 vigorbranding that’s hey That’s fantastic. I never thought that that would have never dawned on me that that would be ah an unfair advantage. you know It’s funny, like yeah I was telling someone the other day, you know the higher the barrier to entry in business, actually the better the business is because you don’t have just everybody and anybody competing. 19:12.66 vigorbranding So you you have a higher barrier of entry. 19:13.25 Stephen Baldi Correct. 19:15.58 vigorbranding um And with that, you have you sort of have ah have a capture to a degree ah group of people, right? ah But the one thing that is interesting, I think if I remember correctly, I think there’s like 30%, I’ll say of ah if it’s a Dunkin Donuts on the street corner, 30% of their their ah customers will probably repeat, right? 19:35.43 vigorbranding ah you You are not, I mean, you know you might have the same business guy that flies every Thursday out to you know wherever, 19:37.58 Stephen Baldi No? 19:40.80 Stephen Baldi we have We’ll have our Michaels. 19:41.81 vigorbranding Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 19:42.16 Stephen Baldi We have our Michaels. 19:43.59 vigorbranding I’ll hit your place and at the airport get a coffee on the way out, but that’s it. Yeah, that’s it. So that’s. 19:48.43 Stephen Baldi I will tell you, though, we do have outside of the the traveling public, we do have recurring customers who are the people who work at the airport. I mean, at National and Dulles Airport, you get anywhere from five thousand to ten thousand employees that are there every day. 19:56.97 vigorbranding No, that makes sense. Sure. 20:03.65 Stephen Baldi And so ah they are also extremely important to us. 20:03.75 vigorbranding Mm hmm. Hey, they got to eat and drink, right? 20:07.86 Stephen Baldi They got to eat and drink and they have to do it fast. 20:09.70 vigorbranding Right. That’s right. 20:10.84 Stephen Baldi Well, we have different incentives to get them in and out, but they are our recurring customers and they’re about 15 to 20 percent of our business. 20:15.10 vigorbranding Yeah, that makes sense. Hey, going back to the old mall days that I was talking about the sneakers, I sold a lot of sneakers to people that worked in the mall, not many Air Jordans, but a lot of the, you know, a lot of the lower end sneakers. 20:22.26 Stephen Baldi Yeah, for sure. 20:27.36 vigorbranding So, we talked to you hit on earlier and I know we, we inevitably, hopefully one day we, we don’t, and we don’t have to talk about, we always go back and talking about COVID and, uh, you know, 20:35.54 Stephen Baldi Oh, yeah. 20:37.21 vigorbranding One of our companies and our holding company is a company called Varsity. And Varsity does retirement communities around the country, we market retirement companies. Well, that that industry shut down. I mean, no one was going, no one was visiting, and people were sick. It was bad. Restaurants, another one of our our agencies, right? We marketed restaurants. No one was going. It was basically shut down. you know Your hospitality Uh, and your restaurants, I mean, and your travel, I mean, you’re, you’re combining it all and how, talk about that a little bit. 21:06.75 vigorbranding I mean, you were hit from both ends. 21:07.11 Stephen Baldi Oh, I had the privilege of double dipping. 21:11.81 vigorbranding Yeah. 21:11.93 Stephen Baldi So we were in hospitality beverage, but we were also in travel. 21:12.41 vigorbranding In turmoil. 21:15.47 vigorbranding Yeah. 21:16.03 Stephen Baldi And so I remember very specifically on March 11th, 2020, President Trump came on television and he announced a 30-day travel ban to Europe. 21:27.16 vigorbranding Mm-hmm. 21:28.65 Stephen Baldi And at the time, ah most people only thought about the impact of air traffic travel to Europe, places like London, Paris. 21:37.58 vigorbranding right 21:38.31 Stephen Baldi But I anticipated that this was really the big moment for our industry. 21:43.00 vigorbranding Right. 21:43.21 Stephen Baldi I know a lot of people associate kind of their aha moment with COVID becoming a significant thing when the NBA shut down and more importantly, when the NCAA tournament shut down. 21:53.85 Stephen Baldi But that announcement on March 11th signified for me that things were about to change for my business. 21:58.60 vigorbranding Yeah. 21:58.72 Stephen Baldi Now, I didn’t know it was going to be 18 months. 22:02.21 vigorbranding Right. 22:02.55 Stephen Baldi um But within about two weeks, we lost 85% of our top line revenue. And so on March 18, we shut the company down for 18 months. um And it was a challenge to what we talked about earlier, where a lot of my identity was tied up in this company that I built. 22:20.39 Stephen Baldi Well, there was no company to have an identity he tied to. And so for me as a leader, It really pushed me during that time to redefine who I was in that moment and who I was going to aspire to be if we were privileged enough to come out of it. And we did. We’ve come out very strong, stronger than actually we went in. um We actually sold 35% of the business last year to some strategic, but then also some individual investors. And so I’ve had the privilege of surrounding myself where before I was the only voice in the room and now there are many. 22:55.69 vigorbranding Right. 22:55.77 Stephen Baldi And it presents some unique challenges, but also some extraordinary opportunities for me to low to learn and grow from other individuals and institutions that have built companies to scale, not all in food and beverage, many not. 23:10.17 Stephen Baldi um But it’s really given me the opportunity to become a better leader um and to take our company into the next five to 10 years of what we will be. 23:20.35 vigorbranding That’s fantastic. you know i the the The COVID obviously affected everybody. It affected everybody in different ways. and like For us for a business, it was and it was really interesting in that you know because we have several different agencies in our holding company, it was sort of a little bit of a like a mutual fund where one or two stocks could be really down, but then others can be up. Our CPG agency, Quench, 23:40.72 vigorbranding you know we’ We’re doing we’re doing brands national brands like you know Sunmade Raise and Stark Institute. To me, COVID, to to that to that company and those brands, COVID was like the greatest sampling program in the history of Earth. i mean If you put it in a package back then, it was on a shelf. People bought it. They stuck it in their pantries. They ate it. They bought more of it. i mean They couldn’t get enough of it. i mean It was just ah an insane time. 24:01.94 vigorbranding for those companies. and then the other the The negative side obviously was the restaurants and everything else. i mean It’s a really interesting time. and and you know You said about how you it can define things. the other thing One of the other things we did was we took adversity. We had all these CEOs that were like, what is everyone doing? i mean like you you know This just happened. It was unprecedented. What is everybody else doing? so We thought, well, 24:23.89 vigorbranding All right, we’re not making i mean and and again it’s not we’re not making revenue businesses down, but we still have these relationships. They’re our clients. So what can we do? So it wasn’t my idea, but one of our guys said, hey, let’s create sort of a round table. of that And our agency is called Varsity. So we called it the Varsity Round Table. So we got all these CEOs that were just like, 24:41.34 vigorbranding What’s everyone doing? And they were able to talk and it was so successful that we did it the next week. And then they talked more and then more and more CEOs jumped in. They weren’t even our clients and became this open source sharing that has now been, we are on about, I think it’s like 250th. 24:58.49 vigorbranding roundt We’ve been doing them every week since the first month of COVID. 25:04.38 Stephen Baldi Wow, impressive. 25:05.19 vigorbranding And what’s done for a company, for us, i mean again we don’t make any money from it. And it wasn’t about that. It was just a place for people to really vent and help. And now we have speakers come in and talk, and everyone’s obviously well beyond COVID. 25:16.71 vigorbranding But it’s really allowed us to be a thought leader and assist these folks. And you know at the end of the day, it’s what it’s all about. And I know a big thing for you is is mentorship, right? I mean, you know talk about giving back. you want you Do you want to talk a little bit about that? 25:27.81 Stephen Baldi Yeah, I’ll talk about that but I’ll also talk similarly to your roundtable so in February of 2020 I had the privilege of joining the organization YPO, which is Young President Organization, which is very similar to what you define there’s 35. 25:42.82 Stephen Baldi 1,000 YPO members globally. And it’s really for business leaders who have decided that they want to walk towards betterment as a person, as a leader, as a family member, as someone contributing to their community in partnership with other leaders. 25:58.55 Stephen Baldi And so I am in the Washington DC Baltimore chapter here ah in the region. 25:58.93 vigorbranding Mm hmm. 26:04.18 Stephen Baldi And I’m in leadership. And I can tell you that organization was really critical in me navigating everything that I had to go through ah during COVID. 26:14.98 Stephen Baldi Now, we didn’t we didn’t meet weekly, um but we do meet monthly in a small group of seven to 10 people, and we have forum. 26:15.26 vigorbranding Sure. 26:19.82 vigorbranding Monthly forum. 26:22.81 Stephen Baldi And, oh, there you go. 26:22.85 vigorbranding I didn’t know I’m i’m YPO, too. I didn’t know your IPO. Yeah, I’ve been. 26:25.92 Stephen Baldi Yeah! 26:26.21 vigorbranding Yeah. 26:27.01 Stephen Baldi So YDO is really what sustained me during COVID. 26:27.03 vigorbranding So Oh. 26:29.86 Stephen Baldi um And I’m privileged to be on the ladder now in leadership. 26:32.72 vigorbranding Do for you. 26:35.01 Stephen Baldi And so, yeah, as far as mentorship, when I started the company, you know it was a priority for me to give opportunity to underrepresented populations. um Now, as I started to grow the company, my focus started to turn inward, Michael, if I’m being honest. And you know the beginning of 2020, it was difficult for anybody to tell me that I wasn’t the shit. I built this company from zero to something much larger than I had ever aspired to as a young person. 27:04.34 vigorbranding Right. 27:06.68 Stephen Baldi um But COVID took all of that away. 27:08.81 vigorbranding Yeah. 27:09.14 Stephen Baldi And so what it reminded me of is that there was a mission that I started this company with. And it was something that I needed to recommit to when we reopened. 27:19.90 Stephen Baldi And so now um we’re really pouring into our crew members um When I hire someone, specifically, let’s take Dunkin Donuts. 27:30.76 Stephen Baldi If I bring in someone as a frontline worker that’s pouring coffee, if they’re still pouring coffee for us in three years, both them and the organization has done something wrong. 27:34.59 vigorbranding Mmhmm. 27:41.17 Stephen Baldi um We want to scale people up. It is not cost effective for us to have people in the same position for multiple years. So if we’re not scaling someone up to take on additional responsibility inside our company and sometimes even outside of our company, then we’ve done something wrong. you know My mentor told me a good leader ah expects or wants people to leave. A great leader expects them to. 28:08.64 vigorbranding Yeah. 28:09.01 Stephen Baldi And so either they’re leaving the position that we’re hiring them for or they’re leaving to go to another organization. But either way, we have to invest in our hourly crew members because we can’t afford not to. 28:20.86 vigorbranding Yeah. 28:21.76 Stephen Baldi And so that’s something that we really communicate out and share out. to our community and our organization and people know that we’re gonna invest in them in ways that other companies might not to and we feel like that gives us a competitive advantage and as a leader it makes me feel a good about not only our bottom line results but also the success that we can feel. I have a manager who’s been with us for eight years. 28:46.57 Stephen Baldi Her name is Marta. And she started as a single unit manager. And now she’s a multi-airport director. 28:53.24 vigorbranding awesome. 28:53.39 Stephen Baldi And to see her growth and to understand the impact that that has has had on her family is tremendous. And I want to do that a hundred times over. 29:00.50 vigorbranding Sure. 29:00.79 Stephen Baldi And I have the privilege of being able to do that as a leader of our company. 29:01.01 vigorbranding Yeah. 29:04.70 vigorbranding and And think of it this way, I mean, and that’s what’s so great about this country, I’ll say is like, you were making whatever $22,000 a year, I think you had free room or board or whatever you were managing, right? 29:12.60 Stephen Baldi I did. 29:13.65 vigorbranding So you you’re probably like, I’m getting by, this is okay. And look, you and you know, obviously, you’re you’re very well educated, you have a great drive and personality, but you you created a a huge company. And that’s, that’s, that’s really super cool, really super cool. 29:25.90 Stephen Baldi Well, Michael, I can tell you specifically in that first year, 2002, I made $19,117 and 43 cents. I can tell you that specifically because that W2 still sits on my desk. 29:36.80 Stephen Baldi I have it framed. 29:36.84 vigorbranding Yeah, yeah. 29:37.68 Stephen Baldi I look at it every day just to remind me of where all of this started and where now we’ve grown the company to I’m, I’m extremely proud. 29:45.15 vigorbranding Yeah. And you know, you mentioned YPO and I’ve been very privileged to be in that organization for, gosh, I think at least 20 some years. 29:53.06 Stephen Baldi So you joined when you were 17. 29:54.45 vigorbranding Yeah, no, but yeah, it’s one of those things, is we you know, it used to kick you out when you’re 50. In fact, I did, I got the rocking chair and showed up at the front door. 30:02.59 Stephen Baldi Oh, there you go. 30:03.68 vigorbranding Yeah, that was the thing. And then they decided to have YPO Gold, WPO and all that. stuff So I stayed in and now we’re like a forum for life. So my guys, we meet once a month and we are together. ah we A lot of it’s virtual because these guys, a lot of it, we’re retired and stuff. 30:15.91 vigorbranding So um I’m old. I mean, the it’s YPO o Gold, but I always say it’s Silent G, you know, YPO old. So, but it’s a, it was the greatest thing I’ve ever done for me. 30:26.29 vigorbranding Maybe a better husband, better father, better businessman, a better employer, better ah a friend. I mean, and I i mean that. 30:32.27 Stephen Baldi and human 30:33.29 vigorbranding Yeah. It’s just a better human. And I think a lot of people see it from the outside and think it’s all, it’s a bunch of guys didn’t talk about how many cars they have and where they want vacation. It’s not that at all. 30:40.24 Stephen Baldi It’s not that it’s a transformational community, you know, having a high trust network is invaluable. 30:40.92 vigorbranding You know, it’s, you know, it’s a, it is, it is. 30:47.41 vigorbranding Yep. Yeah. Someone’s got your back, right? You can always pick up that phone and call your, one of your folks and just, they got your back. No, that’s yeah. 30:54.39 Stephen Baldi And it’s nobody, and it’s nobody, nothing, never. And to have that level of confidentiality is special. 30:57.03 vigorbranding That’s right. Yep. Yeah. Yeah, that’s that’s awesome. That’s all good for you. I had no idea. That’s fantastic. um So, but now I’m going to do a little ploy here. You got to go and you should go to Austin this year to the food and beverage round table. 31:10.60 vigorbranding I mean, if you can check it out, it’ll be, I think it’s in in January, you know, I’ll probably be speaking there, but you should go. 31:14.55 Stephen Baldi OK. 31:16.84 vigorbranding I mean, you know, I’d love to meet you in person. It’d be fantastic. 31:18.67 Stephen Baldi Yeah, I’d love that. 31:18.88 vigorbranding Anyway, so could we do, 31:20.42 Stephen Baldi Maybe we’ll be celebrating a Phillies World Series by then. 31:22.74 vigorbranding Oh man, you’re making me nervous. um I hope so. I hope you’re right. I hope you’re right. But our company, we do it we do an annual food and beverage trends report every year. We’ve been doing them for like, jeez, 15, 16 years. And so a lot of times we launched it at the food and beverage round table. So it’s always really cool stuff. 31:40.96 Stephen Baldi Awesome, send me an invite and I’ll be there. 31:41.00 vigorbranding um Yeah. All right. Well, definitely. I’ll make sure you get it after this, after our conversation here. So, okay. When you go to a restaurant, you you have a choice between human interaction or self ordering kiosks. I know that, you know, you guys need to be really ah high speed, efficient and all that. What what do you, what do you prefer? 31:58.57 Stephen Baldi Well, it depends, right? Deploying technology is a strategy that ah should be done with intention and asking the question, and then what, right? 32:12.55 Stephen Baldi um I will tell you a story. So the first time we experimented with self ordering technology was in 2008 at JFK airport terminal five. 32:24.65 Stephen Baldi And we deployed at the time iPads um at our Dunkin Donuts because we thought, you know, technology is moving in this way and it’s fun and it’s cool, but nobody wants to walk up to a counter and order a coffee by pressing buttons. 32:29.75 vigorbranding Mm-hmm. Yep. 32:39.85 vigorbranding Mm-hmm. 32:44.46 Stephen Baldi You know, communicating to a cashier, ah medium cream and sugar takes about 15 seconds. When you are forcing someone to press hot coffee, then medium, then sugar, then extra sugar, like that’s just, we found that that was a ah strategy that wasn’t ah successfully deployed at that time. 32:58.57 vigorbranding who 33:05.34 Stephen Baldi now That was back in 2008. I will say trends have matured since then and so there is an opportunity to have self ordering technology at a place like Dunkin Donuts and people have learned to navigate it quickly. um You have hot buttons for certain high usage items and so I say to people all the time because my friends question me, whenever they see an iPad, they assume that that means that that technology has taken someone’s job. And what I try to educate people on is that you know if you deploy technology in a intentional way, in a smart way, it allows you to redirect 33:45.29 Stephen Baldi what you would have otherwise spent on front of house and the back of house. 33:46.57 vigorbranding Mm 33:49.72 Stephen Baldi Or maybe you’re deploying it at a ah leadership level that’s multi-unit capable. 33:49.78 vigorbranding hmm. 33:55.24 Stephen Baldi And so it’s not necessarily ah replacing jobs, but allowing savvy business leaders to take that investment and redeploy it in other ways. I will tell you that the benefit is you know technology doesn’t call out. Sometimes you have to reboot the system, but it always upsells. It always asks you if you want a dessert and always ask you if you want to package your burger with fries. And so to be able to grow your top line ticket, ah that’s only going to drive bottom line outcomes, which allows a business owner like me to look at expansion, to go into other cities, to be able to bring other people along with us because the business is growing. And so there’s opportunity beyond just taking someone’s order. And so 34:40.31 Stephen Baldi Technology is something you have to look at in parallel kind of decision making. But I enjoy it. There’s some concepts that it resonates more significantly than others. But I think there’s a balance and there needs to be a balance of both going forward. I don’t think we’re ever going to have an industry that is exclusively technology or self ordering driven. um And I think you go in with a bunch of assumptions, you understand how your customers respond to it, and then you be agile enough to adjust appropriately. 35:08.96 vigorbranding Yeah, I mean, it makes a lot of sense. And i I concur. I mean, you know, I don’t want to wait in a massive line, especially from an airport. But, you know, just ordering, pre-ordering and all that kind of stuff isn’t all that funny either. 35:19.32 vigorbranding So it’s just you with that happy balance. You know, I do like talking to somebody and, you know, because I talk a lot, I guess. But plus, I always ask for some ice in my coffee just a little bit. I don’t want nice coffee. 35:27.30 Stephen Baldi There you go. 35:27.67 vigorbranding So it’s a little tough to explain to an iPad, you know, so very soft. 35:31.57 Stephen Baldi To drop it into a couple of cubes, yeah. 35:32.20 vigorbranding Whoops. Yeah. Yeah. I don’t want to burn my, burn my mouth. So now I know you have at least one daughter, correct? 35:38.70 Stephen Baldi I’d have two daughters and a son. 35:39.87 vigorbranding Two daughters. right All right. Sorry. There we go. 35:41.61 Stephen Baldi 26, 25, and eight. 35:41.75 vigorbranding This will be great then. Wow. Wow. 35:45.67 Stephen Baldi I started over, Michael. 35:45.74 vigorbranding A little gap here. 35:46.59 Stephen Baldi I started over. 35:47.16 vigorbranding You had a little gap here. 35:48.55 Stephen Baldi had I had a couple of gap years. 35:48.93 vigorbranding A couple of gap years. i well so I have two daughters, 26 as of last week and coming coming up on 29. The reason I bring up these families is you know we all know we love all our kids the same. 36:01.78 Stephen Baldi No, we don’t. 36:01.79 vigorbranding But on any but okay but on any given day on any given day, depending on the phone call, depending on the visit, there’s certainly ones that we like other better than others. 36:02.97 Stephen Baldi No, we don’t. 36:09.94 vigorbranding Michael Alex, it happens it back and forth all the time, just in case you’re listening. Those are my daughters. um 36:14.34 Stephen Baldi Love it. 36:15.04 vigorbranding so you know, we talked about pot belly, we talked about smash burger, we talked about dunking, we talked about timber, we talked about founding farmers, am I missing any any ends? 36:25.21 Stephen Baldi There you go. 36:27.03 vigorbranding Which one? 36:27.28 Stephen Baldi It’s the end. Yeah. 36:27.84 vigorbranding Which one’s your favorite? What’s your favorite kid there? 36:29.64 Stephen Baldi My favorite. Wow. You’re going to force me to say that. 36:33.77 vigorbranding Yeah, yeah. 36:34.15 Stephen Baldi Well, I will tell you, because I don’t know if any of our franchisors are going to listen to this part. I love them all equally, and I am privileged to be able to operate them. I will tell you the one that probably um sits deeply in my soul as a person ah is probably Dunkin’ Donuts. 36:55.45 vigorbranding Nice. 36:55.85 Stephen Baldi and And I’ll tell you Dunkin’ Donuts because when I was growing up ah in Southwest Philadelphia off of Cobbs Creek Parkway, I had family that lived out by the airport. And in order to get into that area of the city, you have to travel on Cobbs Creek Parkway. 37:11.63 Stephen Baldi And there’s a Dunkin Donuts on the corner of Cobbs Creek Parkway and I can’t remember the cross street, but it’s been there for close to probably 30 or 40 years. I’m 48 and I can’t remember a time when it wasn’t there. And I remember seeing that Dunkin Donuts and thinking how rich that franchisee must be to have that score. 37:30.65 Stephen Baldi Now I know that owning a single franchise is not necessarily a path to generational wealth, but it did, that Dunkin Donuts did put in my mind like what was possible. 37:40.22 vigorbranding Yeah, that’s cool. 37:40.70 Stephen Baldi um And so to be able to be now a 14 year franchisee of that brand, um which is our longest franchise relationship, it’s pretty special. 37:46.48 vigorbranding Super. 37:50.20 vigorbranding That’s cool. And you know, I’ll say this from the, from the branding side of the world. Uh, what a phenomenal job. I mean, Duncan’s been around forever. I mean, at one point time it was getting a little tired. It was sort of just fading in the woodwork. 38:01.35 vigorbranding And we know, I mean, all these brands, I mean, they come on strong. They’re, they’re always started somewhere. There’s this regional thing. And then they become these big brands and is they, they struggle to stay relevant. 38:10.04 Stephen Baldi Right? 38:12.62 vigorbranding Right. And I think Duncan has just done a remarkable job. 38:16.08 Stephen Baldi We have, yeah. 38:16.24 vigorbranding of staying relevant i mean from their graphic design from their marketing their branding to their advertising and all the cool stuff they’ve done that you did you did they blew it away they they absolutely did and yep 38:22.42 Stephen Baldi I mean, we had the best Super Bowl commercial in my opinion. I mean, Ben Affleck and J.Lo, they did their thing. And Mark Wahlberg, it like it was it was a beautiful commercial. 38:33.65 vigorbranding Yeah, and you know, it just shows like when you have passion for something, and those guys certainly have passion for for for that part of the world and ah from the Boston area. I just think it’s it was exceptional. In fact, ironically, we have at at our holding company level, Pavone Group, we have the longest running, okay, this is no kidding, the longest running Super Bowl commercial voting mechanism called spotbowl.com. 38:56.66 vigorbranding So every year we get 38:57.28 Stephen Baldi OK. 38:59.26 vigorbranding you know, thousands and thousands and thousands of votes from around the world, and people vote for their favorite Super Bowl commercial as it’s being played, as the game is being played. And then the the national media outlets reach out to us, and then we tell them the results. 39:13.08 vigorbranding And Dunkin Donuts was was certainly a stellar winner. 39:13.26 Stephen Baldi OK. 39:16.02 Stephen Baldi It was and had to be at the top. 39:17.26 vigorbranding Yeah, it was awesome. 39:17.88 Stephen Baldi Come on out. Tell me Michael it was at the top. 39:19.04 vigorbranding Yeah, yeah. It was, well, I’m looking over here at my guy that runs it. it was It was the top one. Yeah, it was, it definitely was. 39:24.42 Stephen Baldi It was, it I thought it was. 39:25.10 vigorbranding Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. 39:25.89 Stephen Baldi There you go. Thank you for, thank you for phoning your friend and getting confirmation. 39:26.59 vigorbranding It was it was awesome. 39:29.55 Stephen Baldi It was a pretty special advertising. 39:31.41 vigorbranding Yeah. 39:31.85 Stephen Baldi And yeah, I didn’t get a chance to order my Duncan jumpsuit, but I’m sure it’s in the mail somewhere. 39:36.72 vigorbranding Yeah, there you go. there That’s that that everything. 39:38.41 Stephen Baldi Maybe Duncan corporate will see this and they’ll send me one. 39:38.96 vigorbranding Although. yeah Yeah, all the merch, everything they did around that was super cool. and the take the outtakes from the 39:43.99 Stephen Baldi Super cool. 39:46.35 vigorbranding you know It’s funny too because when it comes to this marketing stuff, like it used to be just a TV spot. and The reason I looked over to ask Dave, Dave’s the guy you spoke to. He’s the one that that kind of heads up this podcast. He’s also the one that really runs Spopple. We’ve been doing this so long that In the beginning, we didn’t know anything. 40:03.48 vigorbranding In other words, they would the game it was all about the game. The game was played. And then people realized, well, people love the commercials. So we never knew, like like you and everybody else, we just sit there and watch the game, cut the commercial. Oh, it’s a commercial for fill in the blank. 40:15.61 vigorbranding Now, they release the commercials to us ahead of time. 40:15.73 Stephen Baldi Yeah. 40:18.45 vigorbranding They tell us what it’s about. They send us outtakes. They give us information. Because they realize it, because it’s a couple million dollars for 30 seconds, that they need to get as much juice out of the you know squeeze as much juice out of this as possible so they want to know they put stuff online they do teasers and it’s it’s turned into a an event unto itself and uh we’re really proud to have been a part of it so it’s kind of funny that you brought that up that’s cool stuff all 40:39.58 Stephen Baldi Yeah. Now I will tell you my all time favorite Super Bowl commercial. 40:44.35 vigorbranding right uh 40:45.67 Stephen Baldi Now I remember the star, but I don’t even remember the brand. 40:49.95 vigorbranding -oh 40:50.06 Stephen Baldi Remember the the commercial with the kid and the Star Wars mask and he was going around zapping things and he went and he zapped the car and the car started. 40:55.24 vigorbranding Volkswagen. Yeah. Yeah. 40:58.28 Stephen Baldi That was my all-time favorite more commercial. 40:58.46 vigorbranding Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That’s great. Yeah. That was ah that was a Volkswagen spot. That was a fantastic spot. 41:03.91 Stephen Baldi Fantastic commercial. 41:03.93 vigorbranding It was a fantastic. You know, I’ll i’ll tell you mine next. i’m I’m a simp and I, you know, ah the Budweiser commercials and 41:11.83 Stephen Baldi Oh yeah. 41:13.17 vigorbranding There was one though in particular where the guy, you know, he raises these horses and it goes on to be a Clydesdale and it it takes off and the horse leaves and there’s a parade. And I almost get choked up thinking about it. 41:24.28 vigorbranding It was so well done. There’s a parade, the guy standing there to parade and the horse sees him, breaks away, chases him down on the road. Oh my gosh. It was, it was, I had to do a live TV commercial. I had to do a live segment on the news about the the best TV spot and and they they, you know, they played it and I wasn’t expecting them to play it. 41:40.60 vigorbranding I’m like, I had tears going down my face. 41:42.56 Stephen Baldi Oh, you got emotional. 41:42.51 vigorbranding I’m like, That’s my favorite. 41:43.64 Stephen Baldi Oh, look at you. 41:45.41 vigorbranding I still get emotional. i think but i think it I think it was the best all-time i mean story. It was just cute. so anyway That’s right, man. 41:50.70 Stephen Baldi And the best story always wins, Michael. Best story always wins. 41:53.25 vigorbranding That’s right. right yeah Yeah, you know, we always tell people a brand is a promise, ah but you have to tell a story. You have to draw a motion, make them laugh, make them cry, make them feel something about your brand. And that’s how you break through. And it’s always important, you know, a lot of times clients will say stuff, um you know, hey we just want to sell more, we got to do this, we got to do that. And and really it comes down to ah the fact that you’ve you got to do great creative to break through to get people’s attention. 42:19.09 vigorbranding So, well, I have a couple more questions for you and I want to hit them for sure. 42:21.03 Stephen Baldi Okay. 42:22.25 vigorbranding So now look, ah we talked about the airports you’re in, in the in the in the greater DC area, some of the most, I mean, they’re they’re busy, they’re they’re important, they’re huge. Other airports, I mean, you have great concessions in those airports. 42:34.37 vigorbranding Other airports that you think have great concessions in the country? 42:37.16 Stephen Baldi Yeah, I will tell you, Atlanta, one of the busiest airports in the world, definitely in this country. 42:42.95 vigorbranding Oh yeah, oh yeah. yeah 42:45.86 Stephen Baldi um And then Houston, Orlando, Chicago, Charlotte, these are all markets that we kind of look at. 42:49.80 vigorbranding Mm hmm. Oh yeah. 42:54.54 vigorbranding Massive hubs. 42:56.51 Stephen Baldi um It’s important for us to be in high demand airport systems, because you never know how the world’s going to, 43:02.80 vigorbranding Yeah. 43:05.21 Stephen Baldi respond. And Morgan Hausl is one of the people who I look to for kind of strategic direction. 43:12.04 vigorbranding Mm hmm. 43:13.49 Stephen Baldi I’m thinking about my business. And one thing he always says is that as a business leader, if you’re only planning for the risk and threats that you can predict, you’re probably missing the biggest one. 43:24.90 vigorbranding Oh, yeah. 43:25.41 Stephen Baldi um And so how we kind of shelter ourselves from that is we go into high demand markets. So even if an airline, a legacy airline like an American or United or a Delta or a Southwest ah decides that they no longer want to operate in that market, there’ll be another legacy carrier chomping at the bit together. 43:44.09 vigorbranding Sure. 43:44.40 Stephen Baldi And so that’s one of our strategy when we’re looking to grow nationally is to look at high demand airport markets. 43:44.77 vigorbranding Sure. Mm hmm. 43:51.29 Stephen Baldi And those are just a few that I named. 43:53.58 vigorbranding I’m a big fan of Morgan has effect. We have him speaking at our, at our YPO. He’s, he’s one of, I think he might even be next month’s speaker. So I’m really, really, are you really, that’s all his book. 44:00.64 Stephen Baldi ah We’re bringing them in on the 13th of November. Yeah. 44:04.00 vigorbranding His book’s incredible. Incredible. I made my daughter’s read it. So, um, what’s next for balding management group. And mean we talked about in other airports. What’s, what’s next for you? What’s what’s your vision? Where are you were are you hoping to go? 44:13.26 Stephen Baldi my My vision is to grow the tent and plant trees that I may never even know their shade, um because that’s when I think a community and when a business is thriving is when you’re willing to do things that you might not be able to see to fruition. And so we’re trying to build a company, not trying, we are building a company that will rise the tide for all the boats. I want to create another 20, 25 stories just like mine. 44:41.46 vigorbranding Yeah. 44:41.62 Stephen Baldi um I can invest and grow my company so that it’s beneficial and creates generational wealth for me, but I also have the opportunity to listen to the individuals whose stories might not necessarily be taken to the top because they’re not fully formed or well articulated. 44:59.34 Stephen Baldi I try to look for those people, because I was once that person. 45:00.66 vigorbranding yeah 45:02.15 Stephen Baldi I was the property manager in the office, and Cynthia Garber came and tapped me on the shoulder, which she did not have to do. 45:02.50 vigorbranding yep 45:08.96 Stephen Baldi And so I’m trying to identify those voices in our companies, the people in leadership, but also the people who we don’t necessarily identify with immediately, because a lot of our workforce our ESL where English is a second language. 45:24.24 Stephen Baldi And so verbal communication is a challenge, but I don’t want that to get in the way of us knowing or identifying the next star in our organization. 45:24.69 vigorbranding Yeah. Yep. 45:33.22 Stephen Baldi So we’re doing things to kind of bridge the gap between ah those verbal communication kind of challenges so that every voice that’s in our organization can be heard because listen. 45:44.32 Stephen Baldi I won’t pour a cup of coffee or flip a burger or roll a pretzel today, but that’s how our business runs. And so I want to give opportunity and visibility to those individuals in a very intentional way. 45:53.22 vigorbranding Sure. 45:59.67 Stephen Baldi So that’s what’s next ah for the company. And I think if you know you pay attention to the pennies and the nickels, the dollars make sense. And I believe if you focus on organizationally, the people who may be at the bottom of the ladder, you’ll grow the tent and the business in a way where there’s more opportunity created for everyone who’s valuable. 46:20.08 Stephen Baldi And so that’s what I’m committed to, Michael. 46:21.72 vigorbranding Fantastic. a Question. Have you ever, have you ever spoke to the woman who tapped you on the shoulder? Have you ever told her? 46:27.38 Stephen Baldi i I mention Cynthia Garber every time I get the yeah opportunity to share how she interceded in my life. 46:30.01 vigorbranding Yeah. 46:33.70 Stephen Baldi And we text probably once or twice a year, but she knows how important she is to me. 46:36.60 vigorbranding Oh, good. That’s awesome. 46:39.09 Stephen Baldi um We haven’t seen each other in person probably 10 years, but I tell her story every time I speak about my journey because it was instrumental. 46:44.19 vigorbranding That’s awesome. 46:47.22 Stephen Baldi So she’s aware. 46:47.33 vigorbranding Hey, that’s got to get you to pay yeah pay it forward, pay it back. And you got to make sure that you yeah you acknowledge the folks that helped you get there. 46:51.02 Stephen Baldi and of pay for 46:54.07 vigorbranding That’s, that’s huge. 46:54.84 Stephen Baldi And you know what’s remarkable, Michael, over the 18 years that I’ve been in the business, 16 years leading this company, every now and then I’ll get a text message or I’ll get a direct ah message on LinkedIn of someone who worked for our organization and matriculated somewhere else. 47:11.24 Stephen Baldi And I’ve lost contact with, and they’ve done the same for me. 47:12.80 vigorbranding here 47:14.06 Stephen Baldi So I know how special it is. 47:15.49 vigorbranding That’s cool. 47:15.94 Stephen Baldi And so whenever I get the opportunity, I try to tell people how they’ve impacted my life. 47:16.98 vigorbranding Yeah. 47:19.90 vigorbranding Very cool. well Stephen, I have one one last question. You’ve been phenomenal by the way. I can talk for you for hours. You’re you’re awesome. ah One last question. All right. And can’t you can’t pick pot belly or one of your, you can’t pick one of your brands, but if you had one final meal, what would you eat and why? 47:35.33 Stephen Baldi Oh, this is the easy, this is the easy. 47:36.24 vigorbranding Oh, good. All right. Sometimes people struggle with this. so 47:38.51 Stephen Baldi No, it’s not a struggle. Michael, I’m from Philadelphia. If I gave any answer other than a gym steak with whizzing American, with fried onions, hot peppers, pickles, and ketchup, I would be doing my city a disservice. 47:42.03 vigorbranding Yeah. Okay. Oh, nice. 47:52.46 vigorbranding There you go. That’s good. 47:53.31 Stephen Baldi So that’s what it would be. 47:53.56 vigorbranding Good. Great. ah Great answer. Great answer. It’s funny, you know, I, yeah, come on, man. 47:56.67 Stephen Baldi North and South, if you haven’t been, you should go the next time you’re in Philadelphia. 48:00.24 vigorbranding I’ve been, I had a gym. 48:01.51 Stephen Baldi I’m not talking to you, I’m talking to your audience. 48:02.84 vigorbranding and Okay. I was going to say, I had a gym stick last week and I’m not making that up. We had, I don’t know if I mentioned, but we had, uh, brought in agencies, independent agencies, all from all around North America, i guys from Puerto Rico, Mexico, Canada, all over the continental U S come to Philadelphia. 48:19.70 vigorbranding and during happy. We took them to dinners. We took them. We treated them right. We showed them the city independence and all that stuff. But when we had the happy hour at my offices, I had pats and I had gyms and we had little little forks and we did a cheesesteak sampling program. 48:32.46 vigorbranding You know, yeah, they you you do know who won. 48:32.82 Stephen Baldi Oh, and I know who won. 48:35.35 vigorbranding So I know, you know, I know, you know, hey, I’ll throw another one out there. 48:36.36 Stephen Baldi I won’t make you name it, but I know, I know who won. 48:41.02 vigorbranding Pat or Tony Luke’s down on Oregon Avenue. 48:42.86 Stephen Baldi Oh, he looks great. 48:43.85 vigorbranding The original. 48:44.04 Stephen Baldi De La Sandro’s Mama’s Pizzeria on Belmont Avenue. 48:44.87 vigorbranding Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. tell sound good You know, you you know. 48:48.67 Stephen Baldi I haven’t lived in the city before the years, but it’s still, I know where to go. 48:48.76 vigorbranding Yeah, man. Yeah, you know, those, those, those are legacy places, you know, and and yeah, it’s all good, all good. 48:54.82 Stephen Baldi For sure. 48:56.68 vigorbranding In fact, you know what, that’ll be my happy meal. The Phillies will be in the playoffs and I do, I slide down into and get a cheesesteak before the game. It’s a, it’s a part of the whole shtick. So I’m excited about it. 49:04.48 Stephen Baldi And you also have to get a wild, wild fruit punch. Come on now. 49:06.31 vigorbranding Oh, there you go. 49:07.00 Stephen Baldi You gotta round it out. 49:07.01 vigorbranding There you go. Yeah, that’s, that’s that’s funny. Well, Steven, it was fantastic. I really appreciate your time. Uh, and it was wonderful talking to you. 49:14.87 Stephen Baldi I appreciate the invitation. And listen, good luck with the rest of your forktails going forward. It seems like you’ve had an incredible run with the amount of episodes that you’ve already had. And I hope you you know multiply that by 10, if that is your intention and desire. 49:27.00 vigorbranding Thanks. That’s awesome. Appreciate you. g Hey folks, welcome to Fork Tales, and I’m excited. Today’s guest is Stephen Baldy. He’s the founder and president of Baldy Management Group. Baldy Management Group is an airport concessions and management consulting company. It’s a mouthful there. ah Manages concessions in Reagan National Airport, JFK International Airport, and Dulles International Airport. ah Stephen, welcome to Fork Tales, and thank you so much for joining us. 00:25.82 Stephen Baldi Michael, thank you for having me. I’m looking forward to the conversation. 00:29.01 vigorbranding So for those that don’t know, all of these are located in the sort of DC Metro, Baltimore or down at DC Metro area, right? 00:36.21 Stephen Baldi Correct. 00:37.04 vigorbranding Yeah. 00:37.19 Stephen Baldi Yeah, even though Philadelphia is my hometown, I’ve been in Washington DC for almost 30 years. um So this is home base for us. 00:46.37 vigorbranding yeah Well, you you you know, I have a little trick question because that was going to be my first question. Are you still a Philly sports fan? I mean, do you bleed Eagle Green? 00:53.03 Stephen Baldi if If you cut me, it would be nothing but green. I live in Washington, DC. 00:56.48 vigorbranding OK, beautiful. 00:57.88 Stephen Baldi My heart is in Philadelphia. 00:59.81 vigorbranding Beautiful, beautiful. Wow. There’s, there’s guys, I don’t even know what they call themselves these days. these’s The commanders, the Washington football club. 01:04.91 Stephen Baldi oh The Washington football team, they’re all. 01:05.40 vigorbranding I mean, they’re just, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just, it’s irrelevant. It’s irrelevant. 01:10.11 Stephen Baldi Yeah, Michael, my family would disown me if anything other than my ah zip code changed as far as my hometown affiliation. 01:10.06 vigorbranding So that’s fantastic. Hey, it’s awesome. You got to bring, I had a gentleman come in, uh, from, uh, Oregon last week to speak to a bunch of advertising agencies from North America. We hosted them in Philadelphia and this guy was so excited. He was, he, he, he came from there, but he was Philly through and through. So everything in his presentation tied back to a Philly icon, something about Philadelphia that was iconic. And, you know, ah in our company, we’re, 01:44.34 vigorbranding We’re very proud that we’re an independent advertising agencies. We have an agency called Vigor and an agency called Quench. Vigor’s restaurant branding. Quench is food and beverage marketing. And the whole thing was around independence and how it’s how important it is. 01:57.06 vigorbranding And he had all these great icons from like Nick Foles to, ah you know, ah Mike Schmidt to the Fanatic to, I mean, Will Smith. 02:07.11 vigorbranding I mean, he just went through all the Philadelphia stuff, you know, the Liberty Bell and everything else. and So it was cool. It was cool. 02:11.77 Stephen Baldi um I love it. I’ll tell you an interesting story about Nick Foles. So I had a really good feeling about our Super Bowl run, even though you know Carson Wentz, who was leading as the MVP that year, went down. And the Friday before the Super Bowl, something told me to go online and buy a Nick Foles autograph helmet. 02:33.57 vigorbranding Wow. 02:34.10 Stephen Baldi And I did. Now, I did not expedite the shipping, Michael. So it was not in my possession on Monday after we had won the Super Bowl. And many of my friends said that helmet’s never going to show up, but it did. 02:47.65 Stephen Baldi So I bought it for $99. 02:47.77 vigorbranding That’s awesome. 02:49.77 Stephen Baldi And I can tell you, it’s it’s worth a lot more than that. 02:51.92 vigorbranding That’s awesome. Yeah, it’s worth a lot to people in Philadelphia. So it’s fantastic. And the pride of that city runs deep. So alright, so tell us about Baldy enter Management Group and what it does what inspired you to get into the airport concession games. I mean, you started I think in residential property, right? 03:06.90 Stephen Baldi I did. I started in residential property management in 2002. And I started in airports in 2005. And it was all kind of serendipitous. I had a really ah prickly history before starting in 2002. 03:23.22 Stephen Baldi at Kettler Management, which managed tax credit properties, but also Class A luxury communities. 03:29.04 vigorbranding Okay. 03:29.23 Stephen Baldi And I had a tenant coming to my office. And she said, Steven, I see you engaging with the residents and how you handle issues. And I think you should be doing more. And I thought to myself, like this woman doesn’t know me. 03:39.92 Stephen Baldi Yeah, I just fixed her fireplace. But who are you to come in my office and tell me what I should be doing? And at the time, I was making $22,000 a year with a Georgetown degree. And the job that they wanted me to interview for paid $85,000 a year. 03:54.21 vigorbranding wow 03:54.39 Stephen Baldi So as you can assume, Michael, goal I took the interview, I got the job. And so for three years, I worked in development for Westfield, which most people know as shopping mall developers, they have an airport division. 04:05.82 vigorbranding Hmm. Ah. 04:07.99 Stephen Baldi And so I was responsible for the redevelopment of national airport here in Washington, DC from 2005. to 2008. And then I leveraged a relationship with OTG Management, which has a very large presence at Philadelphia International, um into a joint venture relationship and actually launched the company, BMG, in 2008. And two thousand and eight and it’s we’ve not looked back since. 04:31.36 vigorbranding That’s fantastic. you know It’s funny. I really i don’t know you. we’re We’re really talking for the first time. I can tell right away, like youre you have a positive attitude, and I can tell you’re engaging. And so I could see how someone would see you in action and be like, hey, you know you you could do more. like You can be a part of something bigger. And it’s obviously what’s happened, which is it’s awesome. I’m a big proponent of attitude. I mean, i I love to know where people went to school. I mean, if you if I interview you, I want to see your brains on the table. 04:58.39 vigorbranding But I really want to know what your personality is like. I want to know about your attitude. I want to know ah how ah how much of a ah person you are that wants to win and be engaging and help people. And it’s ah like it comes through with you right away. 05:09.91 vigorbranding And that’s ah it’s cool. 05:10.18 Stephen Baldi I appreciate that. 05:11.03 vigorbranding now it’s it’s 05:11.32 Stephen Baldi Yeah, i’ll I’ll take it back if you if you want me to. So ah back in 1988, I was turning 13 and I begged my mom for a pair of Air Jordan sneakers. 05:24.58 Stephen Baldi And you’ll remember when Gordon’s first came out, ah they were the first shoe over a hundred dollars. 05:25.72 vigorbranding Oh, yeah. 05:29.85 vigorbranding Oh, yes, they were. 05:30.36 Stephen Baldi yeah I grew up in a upper lower class household and it was a stretch for my mom to purchase these shoes. 05:31.49 vigorbranding Yep. 05:37.09 vigorbranding Mm hmm. 05:38.21 Stephen Baldi But I begged her and I begged her and I begged her and and she ended up buying them for me. And she said, you know, I just want you to be safe. Well, you probably can assume where the story goes. Within like a month of getting these sneakers, I was an attempted robbery, and I acted very violently to defend myself, and it resulted in me getting expelled from the school that I was at. 05:59.94 Stephen Baldi And as a punishment, ah rather than letting me play basketball for the entire summer, my mom forced me to go to the reading math and basketball clinic at Friend Central, which is a very prominent independent school on the main line of Philadelphia. 06:14.39 vigorbranding Mm hmm. 06:14.96 Stephen Baldi And that decision changed my life. um I went from living in a predominantly all-Black neighborhood to a private school that I was the only Black male in my class. 06:25.11 vigorbranding Wow. 06:25.74 Stephen Baldi And what it did was it changed my perspective of what was accessible. like I had never seen a computer before. 06:31.75 vigorbranding Right. 06:32.14 Stephen Baldi And at this school, there was in a computer lab where we could sit down and navigate things. 06:34.40 vigorbranding Yeah. 06:36.15 Stephen Baldi And so going to Friends Central, having my mom make that leap of faith changed my trajectory in many ways. I matriculated from there to Georgetown University here in Washington, DC, which is how I got. 06:48.20 Stephen Baldi to Washington DC. So I am a super Philadelphia sports fan, because not only am I from Philly, but Allen Iverson was my classmate at Georgetown University. 06:51.93 vigorbranding That’s awesome. 06:55.50 vigorbranding Is that right? 06:56.61 Stephen Baldi Yeah, we were the same class. 06:56.89 vigorbranding Wow. 06:57.61 Stephen Baldi And so, yeah, very cool. 06:58.33 vigorbranding That’s so cool. Yeah. 07:00.38 Stephen Baldi And so maya my commitment to making meaningful connections with people comes from way back then when I was forced to do it, not only because of who I am, but my circumstances. 07:00.74 vigorbranding AI. It’s legendary. 07:12.75 Stephen Baldi And I’ve tried to carry that out through my career and my life. 07:15.84 vigorbranding That’s fantastic. what a great That’s great. That’s a great story. you know it’s like It’s funny that on the Air Jordans, at that time, when they came out, and I can follow you on that. i know you You nailed it. You said the first sneaker that was over $100. My dad had ah this like mom and pop retail sporting store. We sold mostly like hockey stuff. We were from Hershey, Pennsylvania. 07:35.39 vigorbranding And I was working in a store in in Camp Hill and outside of Hershey. It’s up in the West Shore, they call it. Anyway, long story short, I was in the mall and we sold some sneakers and the Air Jordans came out and we had them on the wall. 07:48.37 vigorbranding And it was like, it was insane. $100 for a pair of sneakers. 07:52.08 Stephen Baldi Yeah. 07:52.28 vigorbranding And I mean, like, whereas I’ll say the average then was probably like on the high end was probably like 50, 55. 07:57.40 Stephen Baldi Yeah, for sure. 07:58.58 vigorbranding And this went right to 100. And it was funny, my dad, maybe that’s where I started learning about, and I really did learn a lot about marketing, working in retail, because you have to talk to people, you have to sell. And I think that’s the most important skill a person can learn. Communicating with people and learning how to sell, like, you know, at least present yourself, right? So I put these sneakers at the very top. I said, dad, you know what? ah I said, everybody wants the Air Jordans. Most people can’t afford them. 08:21.42 vigorbranding but everyone wants to come and look at it. So I always sell them the white, the white, men’s the body they’re like but you know, so for every one Air Jordan, I saw, I used to sell like 30 other pairs of shoes. 08:25.49 Stephen Baldi ah yeah 08:30.65 vigorbranding You know what I mean? 08:31.05 Stephen Baldi It’s been up in the store. It’s like a newspaper. People don’t necessarily want just the newspaper, at least the retailer does it, but they come in to buy the newspaper and then they buy the water, the soda, the candy. 08:33.13 vigorbranding That’s right. 08:39.73 vigorbranding That’s right. yeah I lured them in with the Air Jordans. I think we had like five parrot the most. I mean, we couldn’t afford, you know, it’s a little mom pop store. 08:46.41 Stephen Baldi Probably two sizes. 08:47.56 vigorbranding Yeah, right. That’s exactly right. So that’s funny. So okay, you talked about sports and and and you know, Philly and all that you you pride yourself on um being a local company and playing in front of the home crowd. 08:58.99 vigorbranding Talk a little bit about the the local connection in DC that you have. 09:02.34 Stephen Baldi Yeah, so I’ll tell you, when you fly into most airports, what people don’t automatically see, but being a former developer, I understand that any airport authority, when you land in their airport, they want you to know what city you are in. 09:18.24 Stephen Baldi So national brands are extremely important. So you’ll have your Dunkin’ Donuts. You’ll have your Pop-Belly’s, which are ah franchises that we operate. 09:22.12 vigorbranding Mm hmm. 09:25.89 Stephen Baldi But every airport wants you to have a sense of place. So when you fly into Philadelphia Airport, you’ll have a Jim Stakes, because that’s you know historical to that region. 09:34.38 vigorbranding Yeah. 09:34.93 Stephen Baldi When you fly into National Airport here, or Dallas International, you’ll have your South Blocks, which is an ASE base. com concept here in the DC. 09:45.49 Stephen Baldi You’ll have Ben’s Chili Bowl, which has been around since the 60s. 09:45.90 vigorbranding Mm hmm. Mm hmm. 09:49.41 Stephen Baldi And so we’ve prided ourselves from identifying and connecting with other founder-led brands, because I’m a founder. And nothing against a hired gun. 09:56.93 vigorbranding Mm hmm. 09:58.81 Stephen Baldi I know they are often effective at their job. But there’s something different about a founder-led company because you’ve built it. 10:06.95 vigorbranding Yeah. 10:07.27 Stephen Baldi it probably has more ah meaning to you behind just the bottom line um results that you drive. It’s personal. 10:15.52 vigorbranding Yeah. 10:15.69 Stephen Baldi And so we’ve developed very deep relationships with companies like founding farmers, with timber pizza, who are all local based companies here. And we expect to continue to grow it, not just in this region that we’re in, but as we grow into other markets to do the same. 10:30.68 vigorbranding Yeah, that’s that’s fantastic. And you nailed it. I mean, like, I’m a founder, I’m an entrepreneur. And you know, and ah again, wonderful folks that that work with me, I’m very, very, very lucky. But you know, for for most people, it’s their job, you know, their career, and and hopefully there’s a sense of of a family and a real relationship. 10:49.53 vigorbranding But for me, it’s my life. I mean, i am I am defined personally by this, which is probably pretty shallow. 10:51.05 Stephen Baldi right 10:54.86 vigorbranding I mean, i mean look, um I love my daughters. I’m a dad. I’m ah a husband. I love my family with all my heart, but I feel like I’m defined by my company and the what I’ve built. and and all of that And I just, you know, so again, I don’t know if that’s a bad thing or a good thing or whatever, but it’s just, it’s ah it’s a lot deeper, right? 11:11.93 vigorbranding When you found something and ah it’s it’s a lot deeper, everyone thinks it has to do with like money and stuff, and it really doesn’t. 11:12.49 Stephen Baldi Right. For sure. 11:17.73 vigorbranding It’s a it’s really about, you know, sort of like your life’s life’s work. and You know, you know, I get I get the most excitement out of seeing the growth of the folks in the company. ah It’s great to see the brands grow and the companies grow. 11:30.42 vigorbranding But I really get a kick out of of seeing the folks that have been here a long time and and all that. So anyway, that’s just that’s me. 11:35.91 Stephen Baldi right 11:36.26 vigorbranding But I just I totally I totally concur with what you’re saying as far as the founder led. I mean, that’s that’s fantastic. 11:41.40 Stephen Baldi Yeah, at some point as a founder, you most likely had to put something at risk that meant something to you. 11:47.14 vigorbranding Yeah. 11:47.50 Stephen Baldi Whether it’s personal guaranteeing, first leverage to build the company or, you know, having to bail it out because you run into a pandemic, which we all face back in 2020. 11:47.75 vigorbranding Oh, yeah. Yeah. 11:55.18 vigorbranding All right. 11:57.80 Stephen Baldi um Oftentimes you can’t just walk from that business and matriculate to another W2 position because this is yours. And so I love when I can connect with founders. 12:04.69 vigorbranding Yeah. 12:07.41 Stephen Baldi I’ll work with non-founders also, but there’s something unique about the journey we’ve all been on. 12:09.54 vigorbranding Sure. 12:11.88 vigorbranding Yeah, absolutely. So let’s let’s talk a little bit. I just so folks know, I mean, what’s really cool about this conversation is I, ah you know, with vigor, we work with restaurant brands, right? 12:22.32 vigorbranding So we’re very familiar with restaurant brands. And you you have brands like Potbelly, Smashburger. You said founding farmers soon to come. ah Timber Pizza, Dunkin, I mean, some some household names. 12:33.94 vigorbranding I don’t know if I’m um yeah any ants. 12:34.26 Stephen Baldi On the end, don’t forget on the end, this is what else we have. 12:35.99 vigorbranding No, I can’t actually. Yeah, we actually worked on any answers. We have an agency called quench that a branding agency, Food and Beverage, that that actually worked with Auntie Anne’s because they started here in Lancaster. 12:40.96 Stephen Baldi Okay. 12:45.88 vigorbranding hu Yeah, and I got to meet Anne Byler in the beginning. 12:45.98 Stephen Baldi They did. 12:48.81 vigorbranding So, Auntie Anne is actually a person and she’s a wonderful lady and It was a really really awesome to meet her and and and what a she was so she’s a very philanthropic lady very very ah ah Generous and very successful very so she’s got a phenomenal story as well. But so yeah, I certainly won’t leave the auntie hands out But you so you have all these great brands um Talk a little bit about I mean, you know, you said somewhere founded by they you know the founders and all that what’s it like to to manage all these different brands and 13:18.00 Stephen Baldi I’ll tell you, it’s a dynamic environment. Airports are a wonderful place to do business. Again, I share with you briefly how I matriculated into them, but once you end up in this kind of ecosystem, it’s hard to walk away. 13:33.35 Stephen Baldi We get the privilege of serving the traveling public every day. And what’s special about that are the passengers are dynamic. There are people who are going on business trips. There are people who are going on vacations. There are people who are going to be celebrated and there are people who are going to, you know, 13:51.28 Stephen Baldi usher people off into a transition of life. And we get to meet and connect with them all. And so I tell our crew members that we have the privilege of participating in whatever journey people are on every day. 14:03.68 Stephen Baldi And then the following day, we get a whole new group of people coming through. 14:06.48 vigorbranding yeah yeah 14:07.36 Stephen Baldi So that’s dynamic in the industries are small. I will tell you it’s about a $8 billion industry nationally in the United States, food and beverage and airports. 14:14.57 vigorbranding Yeah. Yeah. 14:19.40 Stephen Baldi But the industry is really controlled by about 20 key companies. And within those 20 companies, you probably have 50 total key players. 14:23.32 vigorbranding yeah 14:27.50 Stephen Baldi And so we know each other. you know You typically don’t leave the industry. Your business card may change. So you may go from company to company, but it’s a small ecosystem. And so I’ve enjoyed being in the industry now. 14:40.58 Stephen Baldi 18 years. I started when I was two. ah But it’s a buy it’s been an extraordinary 18 years, except for some of the challenges like COVID. But you know for the people who were able and blessed to push through it, I think we have a different perspective on what we can be and what we should be in the businesses that we lead. To your point, 15:00.50 Stephen Baldi um being defined by your business is not necessarily shallow, but there’s levels, there’s there’s depth to what we do. 15:08.62 vigorbranding Yeah. 15:08.91 Stephen Baldi And I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to swim in those depths ah for many years. 15:14.41 vigorbranding That’s awesome. We’ll get to COVID in a second, but I want to go back to airports. ah I’ll say, fortunately or unfortunately, I’m a customer. I’m in an airport every single week. So when you’re describing the people you see there, it’s like, yeah. 15:21.70 Stephen Baldi Awesome. 15:24.71 vigorbranding I mean, you know there’s it’s every single walk of life. Everyone seems to have a higher level of stress. 15:30.65 Stephen Baldi yeah 15:30.77 vigorbranding Everyone’s in a hurry, even when they’re not, or even worse, if someone’s really not in a hurry and they’re walking slow in the airport, that can actually be more frustrating and stressful. but ah So how do you how do you deal with that chaos? I mean, you got all these people that are amped up and nervous and they have anxiety or whatever, and then all of a sudden you’ve got to serve them and take them, you know, and represent these great brands and and and actually make the stuff and and in a and a fast time because they’re always running late, even if they’re not, they just think they’re always stressed. 15:56.04 Stephen Baldi Right. 15:59.20 vigorbranding Talk about airport concessions. Talk about that chaos. 16:02.08 Stephen Baldi Yeah, so you meet people where they are. And I will tell you, operating a street-side restaurant versus an airport, it’s a completely different sport. 16:09.79 vigorbranding I cannot imagine. 16:10.73 Stephen Baldi I tell ah these founder-led companies when they’re thinking about matriculating in the airports, I tell them you know it’s like playing high school varsity basketball. 16:10.80 vigorbranding yeah 16:19.70 Stephen Baldi And then you get drafted to the and NBA, like the speed, the requirements, you know, we have to go through the logistical um challenges of having every box that comes into your restaurant scan. 16:20.40 vigorbranding Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 16:31.21 Stephen Baldi Like Cisco’s not pulling up to our back door and delivering our ground beef for Smashburger. 16:31.53 vigorbranding Yeah. 16:34.05 vigorbranding Right. 16:35.85 Stephen Baldi Like it’s going through an X-ray, just like your luggage is. 16:38.86 vigorbranding Yeah. 16:39.39 Stephen Baldi um All of our crew members have to go through a 10 year federal background check. 16:44.03 vigorbranding Sure. 16:44.19 Stephen Baldi um There’s complexities to the business, which are to our challenge. But to me, it’s also kind of to our benefit, Michael, because it reduces my competition. Because unless you’re a serious player, you’re not trying to participate in airports. 16:54.14 vigorbranding Mhm. 16:56.81 Stephen Baldi And so for me, understanding those barriers and be able to navigate them are great. But from a day to day operation standpoint, We encourage our crew members just to meet people where they are. 17:07.93 Stephen Baldi um It may be the 50th time you’ve welcomed someone to our restaurant, but it’s the first time you’ve spoken to the person that’s in front of you. And again, you don’t know if they’re going on vacation or they’re going to a celebration of life to send a family member home. 17:16.31 vigorbranding right 17:22.96 Stephen Baldi Regardless, you should be additive to their experience and not adding additional stress or complications. Just try to deliver them fast, friendly, exceptional, 17:34.09 Stephen Baldi service because that’s our standard. That is our vision for the company, which is being exceptional is our standard. It’s not something that happens intermittently. 17:42.84 vigorbranding All right. 17:44.59 Stephen Baldi It happens all the time. And so we welcome the chaos. 17:45.78 vigorbranding Yeah. 17:48.05 Stephen Baldi You know, when it’s raining and snowing outside, even though your flights are delayed, we kind of welcome that because that means you get to hang out with you a little bit longer. 17:54.78 vigorbranding Yeah. Yeah. 17:55.63 Stephen Baldi So as long as we’re not canceling flights, if they’re just delayed, that’s kind of our sweet spot. 18:00.01 vigorbranding There you go. 18:00.65 Stephen Baldi So we welcome it all. 18:02.58 vigorbranding That’s awesome. You know, you you said something really interesting. So as I mentioned, Vigor is our agency that that does branding and marketing for restaurants. I know, and it’s not, you know, it’s common knowledge that turnover and and employees in the restaurant industry is like the biggest hassle, right? and Everyone’s dealing with that that turnover. But you just said something. they They have to go through this long, arduous process to get through. So do you find that you have, I’ll say, maybe better better qualified, better quality, 18:32.38 vigorbranding ah team members in your restaurants? 18:34.64 Stephen Baldi I would tell you that our hourly and even our salary leadership ah on some levels, they’re more committed because it is a personal investment to get through the process. 18:39.98 vigorbranding Mm-hmm. 18:45.54 Stephen Baldi And so, you know, typical food and beverage turnover is anywhere from 100 to 150%. And only ours is closer to like 30. 18:51.64 vigorbranding Right. 18:54.91 vigorbranding that’s hey That’s fantastic. I never thought that that would have never dawned on me that that would be ah an unfair advantage. you know It’s funny, like yeah I was telling someone the other day, you know the higher the barrier to entry in business, actually the better the business is because you don’t have just everybody and anybody competing. 19:12.66 vigorbranding So you you have a higher barrier of entry. 19:13.25 Stephen Baldi Correct. 19:15.58 vigorbranding um And with that, you have you sort of have ah have a capture to a degree ah group of people, right? ah But the one thing that is interesting, I think if I remember correctly, I think there’s like 30%, I’ll say of ah if it’s a Dunkin Donuts on the street corner, 30% of their their ah customers will probably repeat, right? 19:35.43 vigorbranding ah you You are not, I mean, you know you might have the same business guy that flies every Thursday out to you know wherever, 19:37.58 Stephen Baldi No? 19:40.80 Stephen Baldi we have We’ll have our Michaels. 19:41.81 vigorbranding Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 19:42.16 Stephen Baldi We have our Michaels. 19:43.59 vigorbranding I’ll hit your place and at the airport get a coffee on the way out, but that’s it. Yeah, that’s it. So that’s. 19:48.43 Stephen Baldi I will tell you, though, we do have outside of the the traveling public, we do have recurring customers who are the people who work at the airport. I mean, at National and Dulles Airport, you get anywhere from five thousand to ten thousand employees that are there every day. 19:56.97 vigorbranding No, that makes sense. Sure. 20:03.65 Stephen Baldi And so ah they are also extremely important to us. 20:03.75 vigorbranding Mm hmm. Hey, they got to eat and drink, right? 20:07.86 Stephen Baldi They got to eat and drink and they have to do it fast. 20:09.70 vigorbranding Right. That’s right. 20:10.84 Stephen Baldi Well, we have different incentives to get them in and out, but they are our recurring customers and they’re about 15 to 20 percent of our business. 20:15.10 vigorbranding Yeah, that makes sense. Hey, going back to the old mall days that I was talking about the sneakers, I sold a lot of sneakers to people that worked in the mall, not many Air Jordans, but a lot of the, you know, a lot of the lower end sneakers. 20:22.26 Stephen Baldi Yeah, for sure. 20:27.36 vigorbranding So, we talked to you hit on earlier and I know we, we inevitably, hopefully one day we, we don’t, and we don’t have to talk about, we always go back and talking about COVID and, uh, you know, 20:35.54 Stephen Baldi Oh, yeah. 20:37.21 vigorbranding One of our companies and our holding company is a company called Varsity. And Varsity does retirement communities around the country, we market retirement companies. Well, that that industry shut down. I mean, no one was going, no one was visiting, and people were sick. It was bad. Restaurants, another one of our our agencies, right? We marketed restaurants. No one was going. It was basically shut down. you know Your hospitality Uh, and your restaurants, I mean, and your travel, I mean, you’re, you’re combining it all and how, talk about that a little bit. 21:06.75 vigorbranding I mean, you were hit from both ends. 21:07.11 Stephen Baldi Oh, I had the privilege of double dipping. 21:11.81 vigorbranding Yeah. 21:11.93 Stephen Baldi So we were in hospitality beverage, but we were also in travel. 21:12.41 vigorbranding In turmoil. 21:15.47 vigorbranding Yeah. 21:16.03 Stephen Baldi And so I remember very specifically on March 11th, 2020, President Trump came on television and he announced a 30-day travel ban to Europe. 21:27.16 vigorbranding Mm-hmm. 21:28.65 Stephen Baldi And at the time, ah most people only thought about the impact of air traffic travel to Europe, places like London, Paris. 21:37.58 vigorbranding right 21:38.31 Stephen Baldi But I anticipated that this was really the big moment for our industry. 21:43.00 vigorbranding Right. 21:43.21 Stephen Baldi I know a lot of people associate kind of their aha moment with COVID becoming a significant thing when the NBA shut down and more importantly, when the NCAA tournament shut down. 21:53.85 Stephen Baldi But that announcement on March 11th signified for me that things were about to change for my business. 21:58.60 vigorbranding Yeah. 21:58.72 Stephen Baldi Now, I didn’t know it was going to be 18 months. 22:02.21 vigorbranding Right. 22:02.55 Stephen Baldi um But within about two weeks, we lost 85% of our top line revenue. And so on March 18, we shut the company down for 18 months. um And it was a challenge to what we talked about earlier, where a lot of my identity was tied up in this company that I built. 22:20.39 Stephen Baldi Well, there was no company to have an identity he tied to. And so for me as a leader, It really pushed me during that time to redefine who I was in that moment and who I was going to aspire to be if we were privileged enough to come out of it. And we did. We’ve come out very strong, stronger than actually we went in. um We actually sold 35% of the business last year to some strategic, but then also some individual investors. And so I’ve had the privilege of surrounding myself where before I was the only voice in the room and now there are many. 22:55.69 vigorbranding Right. 22:55.77 Stephen Baldi And it presents some unique challenges, but also some extraordinary opportunities for me to low to learn and grow from other individuals and institutions that have built companies to scale, not all in food and beverage, many not. 23:10.17 Stephen Baldi um But it’s really given me the opportunity to become a better leader um and to take our company into the next five to 10 years of what we will be. 23:20.35 vigorbranding That’s fantastic. you know i the the The COVID obviously affected everybody. It affected everybody in different ways. and like For us for a business, it was and it was really interesting in that you know because we have several different agencies in our holding company, it was sort of a little bit of a like a mutual fund where one or two stocks could be really down, but then others can be up. Our CPG agency, Quench, 23:40.72 vigorbranding you know we’ We’re doing we’re doing brands national brands like you know Sunmade Raise and Stark Institute. To me, COVID, to to that to that company and those brands, COVID was like the greatest sampling program in the history of Earth. i mean If you put it in a package back then, it was on a shelf. People bought it. They stuck it in their pantries. They ate it. They bought more of it. i mean They couldn’t get enough of it. i mean It was just ah an insane time. 24:01.94 vigorbranding for those companies. and then the other the The negative side obviously was the restaurants and everything else. i mean It’s a really interesting time. and and you know You said about how you it can define things. the other thing One of the other things we did was we took adversity. We had all these CEOs that were like, what is everyone doing? i mean like you you know This just happened. It was unprecedented. What is everybody else doing? so We thought, well, 24:23.89 vigorbranding All right, we’re not making i mean and and again it’s not we’re not making revenue businesses down, but we still have these relationships. They’re our clients. So what can we do? So it wasn’t my idea, but one of our guys said, hey, let’s create sort of a round table. of that And our agency is called Varsity. So we called it the Varsity Round Table. So we got all these CEOs that were just like, 24:41.34 vigorbranding What’s everyone doing? And they were able to talk and it was so successful that we did it the next week. And then they talked more and then more and more CEOs jumped in. They weren’t even our clients and became this open source sharing that has now been, we are on about, I think it’s like 250th. 24:58.49 vigorbranding roundt We’ve been doing them every week since the first month of COVID. 25:04.38 Stephen Baldi Wow, impressive. 25:05.19 vigorbranding And what’s done for a company, for us, i mean again we don’t make any money from it. And it wasn’t about that. It was just a place for people to really vent and help. And now we have speakers come in and talk, and everyone’s obviously well beyond COVID. 25:16.71 vigorbranding But it’s really allowed us to be a thought leader and assist these folks. And you know at the end of the day, it’s what it’s all about. And I know a big thing for you is is mentorship, right? I mean, you know talk about giving back. you want you Do you want to talk a little bit about that? 25:27.81 Stephen Baldi Yeah, I’ll talk about that but I’ll also talk similarly to your roundtable so in February of 2020 I had the privilege of joining the organization YPO, which is Young President Organization, which is very similar to what you define there’s 35. 25:42.82 Stephen Baldi 1,000 YPO members globally. And it’s really for business leaders who have decided that they want to walk towards betterment as a person, as a leader, as a family member, as someone contributing to their community in partnership with other leaders. 25:58.55 Stephen Baldi And so I am in the Washington DC Baltimore chapter here ah in the region. 25:58.93 vigorbranding Mm hmm. 26:04.18 Stephen Baldi And I’m in leadership. And I can tell you that organization was really critical in me navigating everything that I had to go through ah during COVID. 26:14.98 Stephen Baldi Now, we didn’t we didn’t meet weekly, um but we do meet monthly in a small group of seven to 10 people, and we have forum. 26:15.26 vigorbranding Sure. 26:19.82 vigorbranding Monthly forum. 26:22.81 Stephen Baldi And, oh, there you go. 26:22.85 vigorbranding I didn’t know I’m i’m YPO, too. I didn’t know your IPO. Yeah, I’ve been. 26:25.92 Stephen Baldi Yeah! 26:26.21 vigorbranding Yeah. 26:27.01 Stephen Baldi So YDO is really what sustained me during COVID. 26:27.03 vigorbranding So Oh. 26:29.86 Stephen Baldi um And I’m privileged to be on the ladder now in leadership. 26:32.72 vigorbranding Do for you. 26:35.01 Stephen Baldi And so, yeah, as far as mentorship, when I started the company, you know it was a priority for me to give opportunity to underrepresented populations. um Now, as I started to grow the company, my focus started to turn inward, Michael, if I’m being honest. And you know the beginning of 2020, it was difficult for anybody to tell me that I wasn’t the shit. I built this company from zero to something much larger than I had ever aspired to as a young person. 27:04.34 vigorbranding Right. 27:06.68 Stephen Baldi um But COVID took all of that away. 27:08.81 vigorbranding Yeah. 27:09.14 Stephen Baldi And so what it reminded me of is that there was a mission that I started this company with. And it was something that I needed to recommit to when we reopened. 27:19.90 Stephen Baldi And so now um we’re really pouring into our crew members um When I hire someone, specifically, let’s take Dunkin Donuts. 27:30.76 Stephen Baldi If I bring in someone as a frontline worker that’s pouring coffee, if they’re still pouring coffee for us in three years, both them and the organization has done something wrong. 27:34.59 vigorbranding Mmhmm. 27:41.17 Stephen Baldi um We want to scale people up. It is not cost effective for us to have people in the same position for multiple years. So if we’re not scaling someone up to take on additional responsibility inside our company and sometimes even outside of our company, then we’ve done something wrong. you know My mentor told me a good leader ah expects or wants people to leave. A great leader expects them to. 28:08.64 vigorbranding Yeah. 28:09.01 Stephen Baldi And so either they’re leaving the position that we’re hiring them for or they’re leaving to go to another organization. But either way, we have to invest in our hourly crew members because we can’t afford not to. 28:20.86 vigorbranding Yeah. 28:21.76 Stephen Baldi And so that’s something that we really communicate out and share out. to our community and our organization and people know that we’re gonna invest in them in ways that other companies might not to and we feel like that gives us a competitive advantage and as a leader it makes me feel a good about not only our bottom line results but also the success that we can feel. I have a manager who’s been with us for eight years. 28:46.57 Stephen Baldi Her name is Marta. And she started as a single unit manager. And now she’s a multi-airport director. 28:53.24 vigorbranding awesome. 28:53.39 Stephen Baldi And to see her growth and to understand the impact that that has has had on her family is tremendous. And I want to do that a hundred times over. 29:00.50 vigorbranding Sure. 29:00.79 Stephen Baldi And I have the privilege of being able to do that as a leader of our company. 29:01.01 vigorbranding Yeah. 29:04.70 vigorbranding and And think of it this way, I mean, and that’s what’s so great about this country, I’ll say is like, you were making whatever $22,000 a year, I think you had free room or board or whatever you were managing, right? 29:12.60 Stephen Baldi I did. 29:13.65 vigorbranding So you you’re probably like, I’m getting by, this is okay. And look, you and you know, obviously, you’re you’re very well educated, you have a great drive and personality, but you you created a a huge company. And that’s, that’s, that’s really super cool, really super cool. 29:25.90 Stephen Baldi Well, Michael, I can tell you specifically in that first year, 2002, I made $19,117 and 43 cents. I can tell you that specifically because that W2 still sits on my desk. 29:36.80 Stephen Baldi I have it framed. 29:36.84 vigorbranding Yeah, yeah. 29:37.68 Stephen Baldi I look at it every day just to remind me of where all of this started and where now we’ve grown the company to I’m, I’m extremely proud. 29:45.15 vigorbranding Yeah. And you know, you mentioned YPO and I’ve been very privileged to be in that organization for, gosh, I think at least 20 some years. 29:53.06 Stephen Baldi So you joined when you were 17. 29:54.45 vigorbranding Yeah, no, but yeah, it’s one of those things, is we you know, it used to kick you out when you’re 50. In fact, I did, I got the rocking chair and showed up at the front door. 30:02.59 Stephen Baldi Oh, there you go. 30:03.68 vigorbranding Yeah, that was the thing. And then they decided to have YPO Gold, WPO and all that. stuff So I stayed in and now we’re like a forum for life. So my guys, we meet once a month and we are together. ah we A lot of it’s virtual because these guys, a lot of it, we’re retired and stuff. 30:15.91 vigorbranding So um I’m old. I mean, the it’s YPO o Gold, but I always say it’s Silent G, you know, YPO old. So, but it’s a, it was the greatest thing I’ve ever done for me. 30:26.29 vigorbranding Maybe a better husband, better father, better businessman, a better employer, better ah a friend. I mean, and I i mean that. 30:32.27 Stephen Baldi and human 30:33.29 vigorbranding Yeah. It’s just a better human. And I think a lot of people see it from the outside and think it’s all, it’s a bunch of guys didn’t talk about how many cars they have and where they want vacation. It’s not that at all. 30:40.24 Stephen Baldi It’s not that it’s a transformational community, you know, having a high trust network is invaluable. 30:40.92 vigorbranding You know, it’s, you know, it’s a, it is, it is. 30:47.41 vigorbranding Yep. Yeah. Someone’s got your back, right? You can always pick up that phone and call your, one of your folks and just, they got your back. No, that’s yeah. 30:54.39 Stephen Baldi And it’s nobody, and it’s nobody, nothing, never. And to have that level of confidentiality is special. 30:57.03 vigorbranding That’s right. Yep. Yeah. Yeah, that’s that’s awesome. That’s all good for you. I had no idea. That’s fantastic. um So, but now I’m going to do a little ploy here. You got to go and you should go to Austin this year to the food and beverage round table. 31:10.60 vigorbranding I mean, if you can check it out, it’ll be, I think it’s in in January, you know, I’ll probably be speaking there, but you should go. 31:14.55 Stephen Baldi OK. 31:16.84 vigorbranding I mean, you know, I’d love to meet you in person. It’d be fantastic. 31:18.67 Stephen Baldi Yeah, I’d love that. 31:18.88 vigorbranding Anyway, so could we do, 31:20.42 Stephen Baldi Maybe we’ll be celebrating a Phillies World Series by then. 31:22.74 vigorbranding Oh man, you’re making me nervous. um I hope so. I hope you’re right. I hope you’re right. But our company, we do it we do an annual food and beverage trends report every year. We’ve been doing them for like, jeez, 15, 16 years. And so a lot of times we launched it at the food and beverage round table. So it’s always really cool stuff. 31:40.96 Stephen Baldi Awesome, send me an invite and I’ll be there. 31:41.00 vigorbranding um Yeah. All right. Well, definitely. I’ll make sure you get it after this, after our conversation here. So, okay. When you go to a restaurant, you you have a choice between human interaction or self ordering kiosks. I know that, you know, you guys need to be really ah high speed, efficient and all that. What what do you, what do you prefer? 31:58.57 Stephen Baldi Well, it depends, right? Deploying technology is a strategy that ah should be done with intention and asking the question, and then what, right? 32:12.55 Stephen Baldi um I will tell you a story. So the first time we experimented with self ordering technology was in 2008 at JFK airport terminal five. 32:24.65 Stephen Baldi And we deployed at the time iPads um at our Dunkin Donuts because we thought, you know, technology is moving in this way and it’s fun and it’s cool, but nobody wants to walk up to a counter and order a coffee by pressing buttons. 32:29.75 vigorbranding Mm-hmm. Yep. 32:39.85 vigorbranding Mm-hmm. 32:44.46 Stephen Baldi You know, communicating to a cashier, ah medium cream and sugar takes about 15 seconds. When you are forcing someone to press hot coffee, then medium, then sugar, then extra sugar, like that’s just, we found that that was a ah strategy that wasn’t ah successfully deployed at that time. 32:58.57 vigorbranding who 33:05.34 Stephen Baldi now That was back in 2008. I will say trends have matured since then and so there is an opportunity to have self ordering technology at a place like Dunkin Donuts and people have learned to navigate it quickly. um You have hot buttons for certain high usage items and so I say to people all the time because my friends question me, whenever they see an iPad, they assume that that means that that technology has taken someone’s job. And what I try to educate people on is that you know if you deploy technology in a intentional way, in a smart way, it allows you to redirect 33:45.29 Stephen Baldi what you would have otherwise spent on front of house and the back of house. 33:46.57 vigorbranding Mm 33:49.72 Stephen Baldi Or maybe you’re deploying it at a ah leadership level that’s multi-unit capable. 33:49.78 vigorbranding hmm. 33:55.24 Stephen Baldi And so it’s not necessarily ah replacing jobs, but allowing savvy business leaders to take that investment and redeploy it in other ways. I will tell you that the benefit is you know technology doesn’t call out. Sometimes you have to reboot the system, but it always upsells. It always asks you if you want a dessert and always ask you if you want to package your burger with fries. And so to be able to grow your top line ticket, ah that’s only going to drive bottom line outcomes, which allows a business owner like me to look at expansion, to go into other cities, to be able to bring other people along with us because the business is growing. And so there’s opportunity beyond just taking someone’s order. And so 34:40.31 Stephen Baldi Technology is something you have to look at in parallel kind of decision making. But I enjoy it. There’s some concepts that it resonates more significantly than others. But I think there’s a balance and there needs to be a balance of both going forward. I don’t think we’re ever going to have an industry that is exclusively technology or self ordering driven. um And I think you go in with a bunch of assumptions, you understand how your customers respond to it, and then you be agile enough to adjust appropriately. 35:08.96 vigorbranding Yeah, I mean, it makes a lot of sense. And i I concur. I mean, you know, I don’t want to wait in a massive line, especially from an airport. But, you know, just ordering, pre-ordering and all that kind of stuff isn’t all that funny either. 35:19.32 vigorbranding So it’s just you with that happy balance. You know, I do like talking to somebody and, you know, because I talk a lot, I guess. But plus, I always ask for some ice in my coffee just a little bit. I don’t want nice coffee. 35:27.30 Stephen Baldi There you go. 35:27.67 vigorbranding So it’s a little tough to explain to an iPad, you know, so very soft. 35:31.57 Stephen Baldi To drop it into a couple of cubes, yeah. 35:32.20 vigorbranding Whoops. Yeah. Yeah. I don’t want to burn my, burn my mouth. So now I know you have at least one daughter, correct? 35:38.70 Stephen Baldi I’d have two daughters and a son. 35:39.87 vigorbranding Two daughters. right All right. Sorry. There we go. 35:41.61 Stephen Baldi 26, 25, and eight. 35:41.75 vigorbranding This will be great then. Wow. Wow. 35:45.67 Stephen Baldi I started over, Michael. 35:45.74 vigorbranding A little gap here. 35:46.59 Stephen Baldi I started over. 35:47.16 vigorbranding You had a little gap here. 35:48.55 Stephen Baldi had I had a couple of gap years. 35:48.93 vigorbranding A couple of gap years. i well so I have two daughters, 26 as of last week and coming coming up on 29. The reason I bring up these families is you know we all know we love all our kids the same. 36:01.78 Stephen Baldi No, we don’t. 36:01.79 vigorbranding But on any but okay but on any given day on any given day, depending on the phone call, depending on the visit, there’s certainly ones that we like other better than others. 36:02.97 Stephen Baldi No, we don’t. 36:09.94 vigorbranding Michael Alex, it happens it back and forth all the time, just in case you’re listening. Those are my daughters. um 36:14.34 Stephen Baldi Love it. 36:15.04 vigorbranding so you know, we talked about pot belly, we talked about smash burger, we talked about dunking, we talked about timber, we talked about founding farmers, am I missing any any ends? 36:25.21 Stephen Baldi There you go. 36:27.03 vigorbranding Which one? 36:27.28 Stephen Baldi It’s the end. Yeah. 36:27.84 vigorbranding Which one’s your favorite? What’s your favorite kid there? 36:29.64 Stephen Baldi My favorite. Wow. You’re going to force me to say that. 36:33.77 vigorbranding Yeah, yeah. 36:34.15 Stephen Baldi Well, I will tell you, because I don’t know if any of our franchisors are going to listen to this part. I love them all equally, and I am privileged to be able to operate them. I will tell you the one that probably um sits deeply in my soul as a person ah is probably Dunkin’ Donuts. 36:55.45 vigorbranding Nice. 36:55.85 Stephen Baldi and And I’ll tell you Dunkin’ Donuts because when I was growing up ah in Southwest Philadelphia off of Cobbs Creek Parkway, I had family that lived out by the airport. And in order to get into that area of the city, you have to travel on Cobbs Creek Parkway. 37:11.63 Stephen Baldi And there’s a Dunkin Donuts on the corner of Cobbs Creek Parkway and I can’t remember the cross street, but it’s been there for close to probably 30 or 40 years. I’m 48 and I can’t remember a time when it wasn’t there. And I remember seeing that Dunkin Donuts and thinking how rich that franchisee must be to have that score. 37:30.65 Stephen Baldi Now I know that owning a single franchise is not necessarily a path to generational wealth, but it did, that Dunkin Donuts did put in my mind like what was possible. 37:40.22 vigorbranding Yeah, that’s cool. 37:40.70 Stephen Baldi um And so to be able to be now a 14 year franchisee of that brand, um which is our longest franchise relationship, it’s pretty special. 37:46.48 vigorbranding Super. 37:50.20 vigorbranding That’s cool. And you know, I’ll say this from the, from the branding side of the world. Uh, what a phenomenal job. I mean, Duncan’s been around forever. I mean, at one point time it was getting a little tired. It was sort of just fading in the woodwork. 38:01.35 vigorbranding And we know, I mean, all these brands, I mean, they come on strong. They’re, they’re always started somewhere. There’s this regional thing. And then they become these big brands and is they, they struggle to stay relevant. 38:10.04 Stephen Baldi Right? 38:12.62 vigorbranding Right. And I think Duncan has just done a remarkable job. 38:16.08 Stephen Baldi We have, yeah. 38:16.24 vigorbranding of staying relevant i mean from their graphic design from their marketing their branding to their advertising and all the cool stuff they’ve done that you did you did they blew it away they they absolutely did and yep 38:22.42 Stephen Baldi I mean, we had the best Super Bowl commercial in my opinion. I mean, Ben Affleck and J.Lo, they did their thing. And Mark Wahlberg, it like it was it was a beautiful commercial. 38:33.65 vigorbranding Yeah, and you know, it just shows like when you have passion for something, and those guys certainly have passion for for for that part of the world and ah from the Boston area. I just think it’s it was exceptional. In fact, ironically, we have at at our holding company level, Pavone Group, we have the longest running, okay, this is no kidding, the longest running Super Bowl commercial voting mechanism called spotbowl.com. 38:56.66 vigorbranding So every year we get 38:57.28 Stephen Baldi OK. 38:59.26 vigorbranding you know, thousands and thousands and thousands of votes from around the world, and people vote for their favorite Super Bowl commercial as it’s being played, as the game is being played. And then the the national media outlets reach out to us, and then we tell them the results. 39:13.08 vigorbranding And Dunkin Donuts was was certainly a stellar winner. 39:13.26 Stephen Baldi OK. 39:16.02 Stephen Baldi It was and had to be at the top. 39:17.26 vigorbranding Yeah, it was awesome. 39:17.88 Stephen Baldi Come on out. Tell me Michael it was at the top. 39:19.04 vigorbranding Yeah, yeah. It was, well, I’m looking over here at my guy that runs it. it was It was the top one. Yeah, it was, it definitely was. 39:24.42 Stephen Baldi It was, it I thought it was. 39:25.10 vigorbranding Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. 39:25.89 Stephen Baldi There you go. Thank you for, thank you for phoning your friend and getting confirmation. 39:26.59 vigorbranding It was it was awesome. 39:29.55 Stephen Baldi It was a pretty special advertising. 39:31.41 vigorbranding Yeah. 39:31.85 Stephen Baldi And yeah, I didn’t get a chance to order my Duncan jumpsuit, but I’m sure it’s in the mail somewhere. 39:36.72 vigorbranding Yeah, there you go. there That’s that that everything. 39:38.41 Stephen Baldi Maybe Duncan corporate will see this and they’ll send me one. 39:38.96 vigorbranding Although. yeah Yeah, all the merch, everything they did around that was super cool. and the take the outtakes from the 39:43.99 Stephen Baldi Super cool. 39:46.35 vigorbranding you know It’s funny too because when it comes to this marketing stuff, like it used to be just a TV spot. and The reason I looked over to ask Dave, Dave’s the guy you spoke to. He’s the one that that kind of heads up this podcast. He’s also the one that really runs Spopple. We’ve been doing this so long that In the beginning, we didn’t know anything. 40:03.48 vigorbranding In other words, they would the game it was all about the game. The game was played. And then people realized, well, people love the commercials. So we never knew, like like you and everybody else, we just sit there and watch the game, cut the commercial. Oh, it’s a commercial for fill in the blank. 40:15.61 vigorbranding Now, they release the commercials to us ahead of time. 40:15.73 Stephen Baldi Yeah. 40:18.45 vigorbranding They tell us what it’s about. They send us outtakes. They give us information. Because they realize it, because it’s a couple million dollars for 30 seconds, that they need to get as much juice out of the you know squeeze as much juice out of this as possible so they want to know they put stuff online they do teasers and it’s it’s turned into a an event unto itself and uh we’re really proud to have been a part of it so it’s kind of funny that you brought that up that’s cool stuff all 40:39.58 Stephen Baldi Yeah. Now I will tell you my all time favorite Super Bowl commercial. 40:44.35 vigorbranding right uh 40:45.67 Stephen Baldi Now I remember the star, but I don’t even remember the brand. 40:49.95 vigorbranding -oh 40:50.06 Stephen Baldi Remember the the commercial with the kid and the Star Wars mask and he was going around zapping things and he went and he zapped the car and the car started. 40:55.24 vigorbranding Volkswagen. Yeah. Yeah. 40:58.28 Stephen Baldi That was my all-time favorite more commercial. 40:58.46 vigorbranding Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That’s great. Yeah. That was ah that was a Volkswagen spot. That was a fantastic spot. 41:03.91 Stephen Baldi Fantastic commercial. 41:03.93 vigorbranding It was a fantastic. You know, I’ll i’ll tell you mine next. i’m I’m a simp and I, you know, ah the Budweiser commercials and 41:11.83 Stephen Baldi Oh yeah. 41:13.17 vigorbranding There was one though in particular where the guy, you know, he raises these horses and it goes on to be a Clydesdale and it it takes off and the horse leaves and there’s a parade. And I almost get choked up thinking about it. 41:24.28 vigorbranding It was so well done. There’s a parade, the guy standing there to parade and the horse sees him, breaks away, chases him down on the road. Oh my gosh. It was, it was, I had to do a live TV commercial. I had to do a live segment on the news about the the best TV spot and and they they, you know, they played it and I wasn’t expecting them to play it. 41:40.60 vigorbranding I’m like, I had tears going down my face. 41:42.56 Stephen Baldi Oh, you got emotional. 41:42.51 vigorbranding I’m like, That’s my favorite. 41:43.64 Stephen Baldi Oh, look at you. 41:45.41 vigorbranding I still get emotional. i think but i think it I think it was the best all-time i mean story. It was just cute. so anyway That’s right, man. 41:50.70 Stephen Baldi And the best story always wins, Michael. Best story always wins. 41:53.25 vigorbranding That’s right. right yeah Yeah, you know, we always tell people a brand is a promise, ah but you have to tell a story. You have to draw a motion, make them laugh, make them cry, make them feel something about your brand. And that’s how you break through. And it’s always important, you know, a lot of times clients will say stuff, um you know, hey we just want to sell more, we got to do this, we got to do that. And and really it comes down to ah the fact that you’ve you got to do great creative to break through to get people’s attention. 42:19.09 vigorbranding So, well, I have a couple more questions for you and I want to hit them for sure. 42:21.03 Stephen Baldi Okay. 42:22.25 vigorbranding So now look, ah we talked about the airports you’re in, in the in the in the greater DC area, some of the most, I mean, they’re they’re busy, they’re they’re important, they’re huge. Other airports, I mean, you have great concessions in those airports. 42:34.37 vigorbranding Other airports that you think have great concessions in the country? 42:37.16 Stephen Baldi Yeah, I will tell you, Atlanta, one of the busiest airports in the world, definitely in this country. 42:42.95 vigorbranding Oh yeah, oh yeah. yeah 42:45.86 Stephen Baldi um And then Houston, Orlando, Chicago, Charlotte, these are all markets that we kind of look at. 42:49.80 vigorbranding Mm hmm. Oh yeah. 42:54.54 vigorbranding Massive hubs. 42:56.51 Stephen Baldi um It’s important for us to be in high demand airport systems, because you never know how the world’s going to, 43:02.80 vigorbranding Yeah. 43:05.21 Stephen Baldi respond. And Morgan Hausl is one of the people who I look to for kind of strategic direction. 43:12.04 vigorbranding Mm hmm. 43:13.49 Stephen Baldi I’m thinking about my business. And one thing he always says is that as a business leader, if you’re only planning for the risk and threats that you can predict, you’re probably missing the biggest one. 43:24.90 vigorbranding Oh, yeah. 43:25.41 Stephen Baldi um And so how we kind of shelter ourselves from that is we go into high demand markets. So even if an airline, a legacy airline like an American or United or a Delta or a Southwest ah decides that they no longer want to operate in that market, there’ll be another legacy carrier chomping at the bit together. 43:44.09 vigorbranding Sure. 43:44.40 Stephen Baldi And so that’s one of our strategy when we’re looking to grow nationally is to look at high demand airport markets. 43:44.77 vigorbranding Sure. Mm hmm. 43:51.29 Stephen Baldi And those are just a few that I named. 43:53.58 vigorbranding I’m a big fan of Morgan has effect. We have him speaking at our, at our YPO. He’s, he’s one of, I think he might even be next month’s speaker. So I’m really, really, are you really, that’s all his book. 44:00.64 Stephen Baldi ah We’re bringing them in on the 13th of November. Yeah. 44:04.00 vigorbranding His book’s incredible. Incredible. I made my daughter’s read it. So, um, what’s next for balding management group. And mean we talked about in other airports. What’s, what’s next for you? What’s what’s your vision? Where are you were are you hoping to go? 44:13.26 Stephen Baldi my My vision is to grow the tent and plant trees that I may never even know their shade, um because that’s when I think a community and when a business is thriving is when you’re willing to do things that you might not be able to see to fruition. And so we’re trying to build a company, not trying, we are building a company that will rise the tide for all the boats. I want to create another 20, 25 stories just like mine. 44:41.46 vigorbranding Yeah. 44:41.62 Stephen Baldi um I can invest and grow my company so that it’s beneficial and creates generational wealth for me, but I also have the opportunity to listen to the individuals whose stories might not necessarily be taken to the top because they’re not fully formed or well articulated. 44:59.34 Stephen Baldi I try to look for those people, because I was once that person. 45:00.66 vigorbranding yeah 45:02.15 Stephen Baldi I was the property manager in the office, and Cynthia Garber came and tapped me on the shoulder, which she did not have to do. 45:02.50 vigorbranding yep 45:08.96 Stephen Baldi And so I’m trying to identify those voices in our companies, the people in leadership, but also the people who we don’t necessarily identify with immediately, because a lot of our workforce our ESL where English is a second language. 45:24.24 Stephen Baldi And so verbal communication is a challenge, but I don’t want that to get in the way of us knowing or identifying the next star in our organization. 45:24.69 vigorbranding Yeah. Yep. 45:33.22 Stephen Baldi So we’re doing things to kind of bridge the gap between ah those verbal communication kind of challenges so that every voice that’s in our organization can be heard because listen. 45:44.32 Stephen Baldi I won’t pour a cup of coffee or flip a burger or roll a pretzel today, but that’s how our business runs. And so I want to give opportunity and visibility to those individuals in a very intentional way. 45:53.22 vigorbranding Sure. 45:59.67 Stephen Baldi So that’s what’s next ah for the company. And I think if you know you pay attention to the pennies and the nickels, the dollars make sense. And I believe if you focus on organizationally, the people who may be at the bottom of the ladder, you’ll grow the tent and the business in a way where there’s more opportunity created for everyone who’s valuable. 46:20.08 Stephen Baldi And so that’s what I’m committed to, Michael. 46:21.72 vigorbranding Fantastic. a Question. Have you ever, have you ever spoke to the woman who tapped you on the shoulder? Have you ever told her? 46:27.38 Stephen Baldi i I mention Cynthia Garber every time I get the yeah opportunity to share how she interceded in my life. 46:30.01 vigorbranding Yeah. 46:33.70 Stephen Baldi And we text probably once or twice a year, but she knows how important she is to me. 46:36.60 vigorbranding Oh, good. That’s awesome. 46:39.09 Stephen Baldi um We haven’t seen each other in person probably 10 years, but I tell her story every time I speak about my journey because it was instrumental. 46:44.19 vigorbranding That’s awesome. 46:47.22 Stephen Baldi So she’s aware. 46:47.33 vigorbranding Hey, that’s got to get you to pay yeah pay it forward, pay it back. And you got to make sure that you yeah you acknowledge the folks that helped you get there. 46:51.02 Stephen Baldi and of pay for 46:54.07 vigorbranding That’s, that’s huge. 46:54.84 Stephen Baldi And you know what’s remarkable, Michael, over the 18 years that I’ve been in the business, 16 years leading this company, every now and then I’ll get a text message or I’ll get a direct ah message on LinkedIn of someone who worked for our organization and matriculated somewhere else. 47:11.24 Stephen Baldi And I’ve lost contact with, and they’ve done the same for me. 47:12.80 vigorbranding here 47:14.06 Stephen Baldi So I know how special it is. 47:15.49 vigorbranding That’s cool. 47:15.94 Stephen Baldi And so whenever I get the opportunity, I try to tell people how they’ve impacted my life. 47:16.98 vigorbranding Yeah. 47:19.90 vigorbranding Very cool. well Stephen, I have one one last question. You’ve been phenomenal by the way. I can talk for you for hours. You’re you’re awesome. ah One last question. All right. And can’t you can’t pick pot belly or one of your, you can’t pick one of your brands, but if you had one final meal, what would you eat and why? 47:35.33 Stephen Baldi Oh, this is the easy, this is the easy. 47:36.24 vigorbranding Oh, good. All right. Sometimes people struggle with this. so 47:38.51 Stephen Baldi No, it’s not a struggle. Michael, I’m from Philadelphia. If I gave any answer other than a gym steak with whizzing American, with fried onions, hot peppers, pickles, and ketchup, I would be doing my city a disservice. 47:42.03 vigorbranding Yeah. Okay. Oh, nice. 47:52.46 vigorbranding There you go. That’s good. 47:53.31 Stephen Baldi So that’s what it would be. 47:53.56 vigorbranding Good. Great. ah Great answer. Great answer. It’s funny, you know, I, yeah, come on, man. 47:56.67 Stephen Baldi North and South, if you haven’t been, you should go the next time you’re in Philadelphia. 48:00.24 vigorbranding I’ve been, I had a gym. 48:01.51 Stephen Baldi I’m not talking to you, I’m talking to your audience. 48:02.84 vigorbranding and Okay. I was going to say, I had a gym stick last week and I’m not making that up. We had, I don’t know if I mentioned, but we had, uh, brought in agencies, independent agencies, all from all around North America, i guys from Puerto Rico, Mexico, Canada, all over the continental U S come to Philadelphia. 48:19.70 vigorbranding and during happy. We took them to dinners. We took them. We treated them right. We showed them the city independence and all that stuff. But when we had the happy hour at my offices, I had pats and I had gyms and we had little little forks and we did a cheesesteak sampling program. 48:32.46 vigorbranding You know, yeah, they you you do know who won. 48:32.82 Stephen Baldi Oh, and I know who won. 48:35.35 vigorbranding So I know, you know, I know, you know, hey, I’ll throw another one out there. 48:36.36 Stephen Baldi I won’t make you name it, but I know, I know who won. 48:41.02 vigorbranding Pat or Tony Luke’s down on Oregon Avenue. 48:42.86 Stephen Baldi Oh, he looks great. 48:43.85 vigorbranding The original. 48:44.04 Stephen Baldi De La Sandro’s Mama’s Pizzeria on Belmont Avenue. 48:44.87 vigorbranding Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. tell sound good You know, you you know. 48:48.67 Stephen Baldi I haven’t lived in the city before the years, but it’s still, I know where to go. 48:48.76 vigorbranding Yeah, man. Yeah, you know, those, those, those are legacy places, you know, and and yeah, it’s all good, all good. 48:54.82 Stephen Baldi For sure. 48:56.68 vigorbranding In fact, you know what, that’ll be my happy meal. The Phillies will be in the playoffs and I do, I slide down into and get a cheesesteak before the game. It’s a, it’s a part of the whole shtick. So I’m excited about it. 49:04.48 Stephen Baldi And you also have to get a wild, wild fruit punch. Come on now. 49:06.31 vigorbranding Oh, there you go. 49:07.00 Stephen Baldi You gotta round it out. 49:07.01 vigorbranding There you go. Yeah, that’s, that’s that’s funny. Well, Steven, it was fantastic. I really appreciate your time. Uh, and it was wonderful talking to you. 49:14.87 Stephen Baldi I appreciate the invitation. And listen, good luck with the rest of your forktails going forward. It seems like you’ve had an incredible run with the amount of episodes that you’ve already had. And I hope you you know multiply that by 10, if that is your intention and desire. 49:27.00 vigorbranding Thanks. That’s awesome. Appreciate you. | |||
| Nick McMillan and Amanda Signorelli – Managing Partners of the Golden Steer | 13 nov. 2024 | 00:43:27 | |
The Golden Steer Steakhouse, established in 1958, is Las Vegas’s oldest continuously operating steakhouse. It has been a favored dining spot for numerous celebrities, including Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, and Marilyn Monroe. The restaurant is renowned for its classic ambiance, featuring red leather booths named after its famous patrons, tuxedoed servers, and tableside preparations of Caesar salads and flambéed desserts. One diner once said, “The Golden Steer feels like the soul of Las Vegas.” Nick McMillan and Amanda Signorelli are the managing partners of the Golden Steer. Nick & Amanda took over as managing partners in 2018. Amanda’s father, Dr. Michael Signorelli, purchased the Golden Steer in 2001. Nick has spent his career building companies in both the technology and food industries. Amanda’s background is in the tech industry. Nick and Amanda created a mail order offering called Goldbelly in 2020 as a way to offset the impact of lost sales during COVID. The online sales continue today with a variety of high end seasonings and compound butters. Customer service and hospitality is a key part of the Golden Steer brand and they live that philosophy every day. It includes simple things like answering phones with a human voice, which Golden Steer has hired staff members to do. The Golden Steer has worked hard to build its social media presence, becoming one of the most viewed steakhouses on TikTok and using the channel to create offers that drive traffic to the restaurant. QUOTES “I’m born and raised in Las Vegas and my father purchased the restaurant back in 2001. He did it because he loved the legacy and the story and it was something that was near and true to his heart as it is to many Vegas natives.” (Amanda) “Our longest tenured server is a gentleman named Venko who’s been with us almost 40 years. We’ve calculated that he’s made somewhere in the ballpark of 375,000 Caesar salads in his career.” (Nick) “It’s a ton of fun when Venko’s making your Caesar salad. You’ll definitely hear some stories about old Vegas for sure.” (Nick) “We’re one of the most – if not THE most – viral restaurants in America on TikTok.” (Amanda) “We’re in a strip mall. A lot of times folks say ‘When I first drove up I didn’t think I was in the right spot.’ But then you walk inside and it’s like a little time capsule back to old Vegas.” (Nick) “We look at ourselves as stewards of this brand that has survived six decades plus and we hope to celebrate another six decades.” (Nick) “To quote Steve Wynn, ‘People make people happy.” We really try to embrace that.” (Nick) TRANSCRIPT00:01.94 vigorbranding Hello, welcome to Fork Tales. I’m Michael Pavone, and we’re really excited about this episode. This is gonna be a fun story. There’s a list, obviously, of truly legendary restaurants right in in the United States, but the Golden Steer in Las Vegas is one of those restaurants. it’s It’s the oldest continually operating steakhouse in Las Vegas, and our guests today are Nick McMillan and Amanda Signorelli. I’m Italian, so I got that right, right?
00:29.18 Nick _ Amanda Nailed it.
00:29.73 vigorbranding yeah Okay. So the managing partners, the Golden Steer, the Golden Steer is a steak house that became a regular stop of Fr | |||
| Anand Gala – Managing Partner of Gala Capital Group | 21 oct. 2024 | 00:40:12 | |
Anand is the Founder and Managing Partner of Gala Capital Partners, a diversified investment and holding company with interests in chain restaurants, software & technology, real estate development, franchising and public equities investment. He has spent the past 35 years in various executive capacities within the Software, Real Estate & Restaurant Industries. Gala Capital Partners invests in (among other things) restaurants. The current portfolio includes CiCi’s Pizza, Famous Dave’s Barbeque, Rusty Taco and MOOYAH Burgers, Fries & Shakes. Anand grew up in the restaurant industry. His mother was an early franchisee with Jack in the Box. Anand’s parents knew the restaurant industry was a difficult career path, so they encouraged Anand to pursue other careers. He graduated from USC with a degree in biology, but he was drawn back into the family business and fell in love with it all over again. When it comes to restaurants to invest in, Gala Capital Partners focuses on five key categories: burgers, chicken, tacos/Mexican, pizza and coffee. The brands that Gala Capital Partners focus on are between 25-350 units. They call those “adolescent brands.” When evaluating successful franchises, Anand starts with the quality of the food. Focusing on quality and taste is the easiest way for a restaurant to stand out from the competition. QUOTES“(The restaurant industry) is usually the first job for many young adults and teenagers. It teaches them work ethic, it teaches them responsibility.” (Anand) “When I returned to the (restaurant) business after university, I realized I could learn about finance, I could learn about accounting, I could learn about marketing, I could learn about HR, I could learn about IT, I could get into real estate. It was so multi-dimensional. It was remarkable and it just captivated me.” (Anand) “There were many, many humbling experiences. When you’re 25 you have a great deal of confidence and bravado. I had a couple lessons that I learned the hard way and I think I’m far better off for it today.” (Anand) “I’d encourage each and every (restaurant) executive to go work a week and do that every single year. You don’t know what a franchisee goes through and you don’t know what a store manager goes through until you’ve done it.” (Anand) “Each and every one of our restaurant brands plays a significant role in how you serve the customer.” (Anand) “Our typical franchisee and the ideal profile is somebody who is new to franchising and really wants to get into the business and work in the business and be hands on in the stores. Or it’s going to be someone in a smaller market of the family business and they’ve got anywhere from 3 to 30 locations and they really love being hands on and involved.” (Anand) “We want very active and hands on operators. People who want to be there and build relationships with their leadership teams, with their managers, with their employees. They want to participate and support their local communities. Those are the folks we’re looking for.” (Anand) TRANSCRIPT00:01.44 vigorbranding Hello, everyone. Today’s guest is Anand Gala of Gala Capital Partners. Put simply, Anand is an investor, and one of those investments is restaurants. But I’ve known him for quite a while, and I’m always blown away by his stories, his growth, and and everything in between. So this will be a great conversation. Anand, welcome to Fork Tales. Thanks for doing this program. </ | |||
| Andy Gellert – President of Gellert Global Group | 14 oct. 2024 | 00:30:47 | |
Andy is president of Gellert Global Group. The company imports more than 5,500 unique food items from more than 60 countries and is one of the largest food importers in the world. Gellert Global Group is home to 12 companies, led by Atalanta, the largest privately-held food importer in the U.S. Gellert Global is a third-generation family-run business. The Gellert Global Group comprises many of the leading North American food-importing companies and has been importing food products for over 100 years. The combined revenues of the Group exceed $1.7 billion. The Gellert Global family includes Andy’s sister, brother and cousin. Andy’s father and uncle are also part of the company. Andy’s father, George, was recently inducted into the New Jersey business hall of fame. Gellert Global’s goal is to be a part of every food and beverage experience. Andy and his team use a variety of factors to determine which products and brands to partner with, including trends and the needs of customers. QUOTES“Some of these family businesses and you hear about fighting and people not getting along. I think we’re successful because we keep growing and there’s enough things for everyone to do and for everyone to bring value.” (Andy) “You want (joining the family business) to happen organically. It’s a fun business. There’s opportunities for (family) to join if they want. There’s no obligation to come in. We’d like them to come in, but we don’t want to make a rule that they have to come in.” (Andy) “Network is important to my father. I learned that from him early on. Being a part of YPO (Young President’s Organization), I love leveraging my network. I like investing in early-stage CPG’s and helping and leading them to other opportunities.” (Andy) “We don’t want to lose direction. We’re very big and we’re happy where we are but we’re not in a rush to get to two billion. We’re going to get there smart. If it means pairing down and doing SKU rationalization to be more profitable, all the better.” (Andy) “It’s really all about efficiency. As you get bigger you can be more efficient, but you have to be diligent.” (Andy) “We’re an importer of products so our products are expensive already. We’re always looking for ways to (save). You always have to turn over rocks to look for more opportunities.” (Andy) “I love eating. I love food experiences. I love being surprised. I like going to a chef and saying ‘Just surprise me. Just give me what you do best.’” (Andy) TRANSCRIPT00:00.45 Andy Gellert Bye.
00:01.87 vigorbranding Hey there, welcome to Fork Tales. I’m ah Michael Pavone, and I’m happy to really get a chance to talk to a good friend of mine. ah Today we have Andy Gellert here. He’s a good friend I’ve known for and respected for a long, long time. Andy’s the president of Gellert Global Group, one of the largest food importers in the world. ah They import more than 2,500 product lines from more than 60 countries. Andy, thank you so much for being here.
00:27.05 Andy Gellert Mike, always a pleasure, always great seeing you, and nice seeing your smiling face, and I love hanging out with you. We’re always having a lot of fun together.
00:34.39 vigorbranding Yeah, absolutely. You know, if they if they have music for this in the beginning, you know, I was going to, I was going to change up our, our forktails music and have a little.
00:41.1 | |||
| Ep 88: Shannon O’Shields / VP of Marketing for Rubix Foods and Gen Z whisperer | 30 sept. 2024 | 00:44:07 | |
Shannon is VP of Marketing for Rubix Foods. Rubix bills itself as “a premier culinary and food science-focused provider of flavor and functional ingredients, offering up insight-driven concepts and breakthrough food solutions for industry leading restaurants, retailers and manufacturers in the United States.” Rubix works with about 70% of the top QSR and FSR chains with a focus on sauces, glazes and spreads. Rubix has a full R&D team that works on new flavors and processes to help with shelf life and other factors. Consumers today demand specific flavors from specific parts of the world. The quick-service restaurant (QSR) industry faces unique challenges in product development. Scaling products to meet operational demands, managing supply chains, and maintaining cost-effectiveness are all critical. Products must also maintain consistent taste, shelf stability, and not require refrigeration, adding to the complexity. This differs from fine dining, where chefs can source fresh ingredients from farmers’ markets and prepare them on-site. The technicalities involved in QSR make the development process much more intricate and demanding compared to traditional restaurant models. Rubix Foods created the NEXT Flavor Network, an insight generator comprised of an exclusive group of social influencers who have joined the Rubix team to bring Gen Z-approved concepts to restaurant menus. QUOTES“What really sets (Rubix Foods) apart is the market research and consumer insights, which plays a huge role in what we do, and also speed-to-market. Because of our size and the team members that we have here we are able to be much more nimble and agile.” (Shannon) “We’re able to help restaurants capitalize on (flavor trends) at the peak of their virality and take advantage of trends much faster than (competitors).” (Shannon) “Gen Z is the most diverse demographic in history and they’re really excited about trying new flavors. Social media is a part of that.” (Shannon) “We’re seeing a lot of really exciting flavor profiles entering the marketplace. Like Korean flavors and Korean barbeque, Hawaiian flavors, a lot of spins on tropical and Caribbean flavors. It’s been really exciting. Not much is off limits right now.” (Shannon) “We all eat food. We all have our own unique food experiences. So it’s extremely interesting and nuanced and novel to see how other people are experiencing food. Food influencers have really tapped into that.” (Shannon) “There are very few companies that can allow brands to take advantage of social trends at the peak of their virality and actually get them on a menu while consumers still care about it. That is what brands need to do if they want to win with Gen Z.” (Shannon) | |||
| Ep 87: Doug Renfro / President of Renfro Foods and Salsa Creator Extraordinaire | 04 sept. 2024 | 00:31:45 | |
Renfro Foods is a privately owned, award-winning food producer of salsas, sauces and relishes, including 30 Mrs. Renfro’s products, located in Fort Worth, Texas. Founded in 1940, Renfro Foods is owned and managed by the second and third generations of the Renfro family. Its products are sold in the United States, the Caribbean, Canada and the U.K. As president of Renfro Foods, Doug works closely with his cousins Becky and James to run the company. In particular, Doug focuses on research and development, private label and contract packing, quality assurance, sales and marketing, legal, information technology and a dozen other areas Doug and his cousins strive for family harmony in managing the company and don’t make any major decisions without a unanimous vote of support. For Doug, one of the benefits of working with family is the ability to be brutally honest with each other and still maintain a civil and professional relationship. The team at Renfro Foods pays close attention to flavor trends to identify new salsa flavors. QUOTES“When I got out of college, if I had come to work here I would have been chopping cabbage. The executive positions were filled by my dad and my uncle.” (Doug) “When I came (to Renfro Foods) I had been in charge of corporate accounting for a billion dollar company. My uncle was still doing pricing on a legal pad with his desk calculator. I said, ‘Here’s a spreadsheet. It’s going to instantaneously recalculate the cost of thousands of items in a millisecond.’ He saw what that did and he said, ‘Can you do that every 90 days from now on?’” (Doug) “If you don’t demand as much of your ego to be around, one of the secrets I tell (people) is get somebody without your last name to suggest the same idea you’ve been suggesting that’s been ridiculed and suddenly it’s a great idea.” (Doug) “If you take business things personally, that screws (family) relationships up.” (Doug) “I think we lost money on every jar of Raspberry Chipotle we sold last year. Thankfully we didn’t sell many.” (Doug) “I want everything on the label to be tasteable but you can’t always afford to do that without losing money,” (Doug) TRANSCRIPT00:01.23 vigorbranding All right, hey there, Fork Tales listeners and viewers. I am really happy to be joined today by a good friend of mine, Doug Renfro. Doug is president of Renfro Foods. And I had to say it like 25 times because somehow the word foods after Renfro, I mean, foods in Renfro is easy.
00:13.93 Doug Renfro sorry
00:15.18 vigorbranding Renfro Foods, I just struggled. But anyway, ah he is the the the president of Mrs. Renfro’s Salsa. ah Not only are they a family owned company, which always is interesting, but they’re one of the most innovative companies I know. Doug, welcome and thank you very much for joining us and for your time.
00:32.73 Doug Renfro Thanks, happy to be here.
00:34.60 vigorbranding So ah you know I’m going to start off by pointing out i’ve I’ve been very fortunate to know you and to ah have your product. And it’s phenomenal. And I’m not just saying that. ah Case in point, I have three jars behind me that were supposed to be props for this presentation. There w | |||
| Ep 86: Burney Jennings / Executive Chairman of Biscuitville | 21 août 2024 | 00:32:21 | |
Burney Jennings is the CEO and president of Biscuitville. Burney took over the leadership reins from his father and founder of Biscuitville Maurice Jennings in 1996. Burney’s bold leadership, vision and keen sense of knowing what customers want has contributed to the company’s growth and success. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, Biscuitville Fresh Southern is a family-owned company serving authentic Southern food made fresh daily from locally sourced ingredients. Known as the Home of the Biscuit Window Since 1966, Biscuitville serves scratch-made biscuits baked fresh every 15 minutes. Biscuitville employs over 2,400 people and operates more than 70 restaurants in North Carolina, Virginia and South Carolina. In July 2023, Biscuitville was voted the nation’s Best Fast Food Breakfast & Best Regional Fast Food restaurant in the 2023 USA Today Readers’ Choice 10Best contest. Burney’s father inherited his mother’s famous biscuit recipe after his ailing mother gave him a choice of his inheritance – the recipe or the farm. Burney’s father chose the recipe and the rest is history. Biscuitville has stood out from the competition for not working with food delivery services like Uber Eats and GrubHub. According to Burney, the decision was based on several factors including the inability to accommodate to-go orders because the restaurant is so busy. Biscuitville has made headlines with its “Life After 2” program in which each of its locations close at 2pm each day. The program allows employees to pursue other interests and spend more time with their families. QUOTES“(My grandmother) gave my dad – since he was the oldest – the choice: My biscuit recipe or the farm. He chose the biscuit recipe.” (Burney) “The key to a good biscuit is love.” (Burney) “Growing up, my dad was fascinated by chain restaurants. My dad told me, ‘We all know how to make a McDonald’s hamburger. We know the ingredients. It’s not about the burger, it’s how they do it. It’s the system they put in place. It’s the marketing, it’s the brand, it’s the people, it’s the execution.’” (Burney) “We started closing at 2pm. Our food quality went up, our food costs went down and our employees are much happier. Now of course, you need to be a morning person. If you’re not a morning person, we’re not a good place for you.” (Burney) “We really strive to work with local companies first, and if we can’t be local, we work with family businesses.” (Burney) “We’ve been able to differentiate ourselves in the breakfast space because we close at 2pm. People know breakfast is our focus.” (Burney) TRANSCRIPT00:00.01 Burney Jennings I can, this is not too close.
00:04.65 vigorbranding No, ye you’re perfect.
00:05.35 Burney Jennings No video? Okay.
00:06.54 vigorbranding Yep. Okay. You ready to roll?
00:08.75 Burney Jennings Now I’m ready to roll.
00:10.09 vigorbranding All right. Welcome, Fork Tales fans. The best biscuits in the world are made in the South, of course. And the best place to buy those biscuits is a restaurant called Biscuitville. Today’s guest is the chairman of bisop but Biscuitville, Bernie Jennings, and we’re going to talk about biscuits, fam | |||
| Ep 85: Ben Jacobs / Chef, founder of Tocabe and Native local pioneer | 01 août 2024 | 00:43:28 | |
Ben started Tocabe with his friend and business partner Matthew Chandra. Opened in 2008, Tocabe is one of the only restaurants in Denver specializing in Native and Indigenous cuisine and one of only a handful in the United States. Ben is a tribal member of the Osage Nation of northeast Oklahoma. Ben also created Seed To Soul, which creates prepared authentic Native American meals for people in need in Native American communities. In Ben’s words, Seed to Soul helps to create and develop a Native food system. Tocabe was featured on Diners, Drive-In’s & Dives in 2011. Before the appearance, Tocabe was struggling. After the appearance, business “skyrocketed.” Ben admits that operating a Native restaurant isn’t as easy as a burger or pizza restaurant because the food doesn’t have the built in knowledge and familiarity that other restaurants might have. QUOTES“Whenever someone asks me ‘What is Native American cuisine?’, I don’t know. And that’s the whole point. We’re all so different depending on the region and tribal community.” (Ben) “I always like to say we’re the oldest cultures on the continent but in many ways we have the youngest cuisine because it’s not clearly defined.” (Ben) “When we started we said we wanted to create the trend for what a Native restaurant is in America.” (Ben) “We started with Osage-specific recipes, but now we’re ingredient-driven. We source from native food producers from all over the country.” (Ben) On Tocabe’s appearance on Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives: “Guy (Fieri) was amazing. He was so fun, he was engaging. He enjoyed being there. You can tell he was into it.” (Ben) “For us to be a Native restaurant, we need to support the Native food system. And since it’s so spread out, we can’t always be locally made. So we say ‘Native first, local second.’” (Ben) “We source wild rice from the Great Lakes, blueberries from Maine, huckleberries from Washington state, olive oil from California, beans from the southwest. You name it, we source from all over.” (Ben) TRANSCRIPT“Whenever someone asks me ‘What is Native American cuisine?’, I don’t know. And that’s the whole point. We’re all so different depending on the region and tribal community.” (Ben)
“I always like to say we’re the oldest cultures on the continent but in many ways we have the youngest cuisine because it’s not clearly defined.” (Ben)
“When we started we said we wanted to create the trend for what a Native restaurant is in America.” (Ben)
“We started with Osage-specific recipes, but now we’re ingredient-driven. We source from native food producers from all over the country.” (Ben)
On Tocabe’s appearance on Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives: “Guy (Fieri) was amazing. He was so fun, he was engaging. He enjoyed being there. You can tell he was into it.” (Ben)
“For us to be a Native restaurant, we need to support the Native food system. And since it’s so spread out, we can’t always be locally made. So we say ‘Native first, local second.’” (Ben)
“We source wild rice from the Great Lakes, blueberries from Maine, huckleberries from Washington state, olive oil from California, beans from the southwest. You name it, we source from all over.” (Ben) | |||
| Ep 84: Audley Wilson / Shark Tank survivor & Founder of RoboBurger | 18 juil. 2024 | 00:37:52 | |
Roboburger is billed as the “World’s First Burger Chef In a Vending Format.” RoboBurger condenses the average kitchen by 99% into just 12 square feet, including refrigeration, heating, ventilation, prep line and cleaning. Burgers are automatically grilled and assembled in under 4 minutes. Roboburger RoboBurger was invented by Audley Wilson, a data scientist; Dan Braido, a Rutgers PhD grad; and Andy Siegel, a serial entrepreneur. Audley and his team have been working on Roboburger for about five years but Audley’s passion for robotics goes all the way back to his childhood. Audley has been passionate about robotics and automation from a young age, and one of his teenage years robotics prototypes got him a scholarship at Carnegie Mellon. RoboBurger was in beta phase up until SharkTank. They launched their first beta location in a dive bar in Jersey City in 2020. They launched an NSF-certified model in 2022. The units now – generation 5 – are UL certified and are launching in locations from Indiana to Missouri. Future locations for Roboburger machines include colleges, airports and rest stops. Friends encouraged Audley to take his idea to Shark Tank since the earliest days of the Roboburger process. Shark Tank producers noticed the media coverage about RoboBurger and reached out to Audley in 2022 with an offer to appear. It wasn’t until 2023 that Audley and his team decided the machine was reach for a prime time appearance. QUOTES“No one ever went bankrupt trying to feed America burgers.” (Michael) “One of the biggest challenges (with Roboburger) has been the health requirements. Getting that NSF certification was a gargantuan challenge and getting our UL certification on top of that was even more.” (Audley) “We clean the griddle after every burger. We do heat sanitization every four hours. We’ve actually got our cleaning process certified by a third party.” (Audley) “(One of our goals is to) make food service accessible for vending.” (Audley) “People are starting to shift to a higher convenience lifestyle. How can I get what I want, when I want it, wherever I am.” (Audley) “When you get to Shark Tank, it’s just one go. You’re standing on a carpet. It’s live. There are no cuts.” (Audley) “Shark Tank was a really interesting experience. I’ve done thousands of pitches over the years, but I’ve never had one (like Shark Tank).” (Audley) “We’re very happy with the (Shark Tank) deal. Those are exactly the sharks that we wanted to make a deal with.” (Audley) TRANSCRIPT00:01.57 vigorbranding Hello there to Fork Tales. Today’s guest is Audley Wilson. Now, typically, I have chefs on. Typically, I have restaurateurs. But today, we have a robotics expert. ah He is a burger expert and founder and CEO of Robo Burger, the world’s first burger chef in a vending machine. That’s right. He makes burgers within a vending machine. He also recently appeared on Shark Tank to pitch his idea to the investors. Audley, thank you so much for joining us today.
00:31.42 Audley Wilson Well, thank you so much, Michael, for having me on. I’m excited to be speaking with you.
00:36.82 vigorbranding Awesome. wow You and I got to meet, I think it was a little over a year ago and I i saw you then again in LA and | |||
| Ep 83: Craig Bernstein / Founder of Doc B’s Restaurant & Bar | 28 juin 2024 | 00:38:45 | |
Craig is the founder of Doc B’s Restaurant & Bar. The restaurant is named after Craig’s late father, “Doctor B,” Doc B’s was first opened in Chicago in September 2013 and is a fresh, casual dining concept. Doc B’s has 10 locations in Chicago, Tampa, Ft. Lauderdale, and Coral Gables, FL; Austin, Dallas, and Forth Worth, TX.
Craig was inspired to follow a career in the restaurant industry after meeting Morton’s Steakhouse legend Allen Bernstein at a Knicks game. Craig and his dad talked to Allen at his courtside seats and he later formed a mentor relationship with Craig.
Craig interviewed Allen Bernstein for a career report in the sixth grade about being a restaurant owner. Allen would later industry Craig to other restaurant industry leaders.
Doc B’s started as a fast casual restaurant and transformed into a full service restaurant. That shift allowed Doc B’s to offer an elevated food offering and establish a better relationship with customers.
Different layouts of each Doc B’s location provides opportunities for different design elements and features within each location. QUOTES“(Allen Bernstein) really transformed my life to a certain extent. Allen drove me to pursue a career in the restaurant industry.” (Craig)
“For me, the idea of hospitality and really going above and beyond for every guest was always really innate in the philosophy of our business. That’s why we transferred to full service.” (Craig)
“It’s about slow and steady growth. Not just growing for growth sake. Really trying to get great real estate, grow organically, grow from within and build the team from within.” (Craig)
“I know the last chapter of our book. I just don’t know all the pages between today and then.” (Craig)
“We don’t want to cut costs just to get more bodies inside the restaurant. We want to maintain our integrity, we want to maintain our value on the plate and we don’t want to trim the quality that we offer.” (Craig)
“We’re traveling. We’re in our restaurants. We’re engaging with the team and engaging with guests. We’re doing constant evaluations of the food and service.” (Craig)
“It really comes down to letting the general managers own their business and operate it like it was their four walls.” (Craig)
“What’s fun about my job is you can have a day that’s the easiest day in the world and then you can have another day where nothing is going right.” (Craig) TRANSCRIPT00:00.60 vigorbranding Hey there hey I’m really excited today to talk to a guest ah a gentleman I met probably a couple months ago something happened there got an error message you the phone expensive fiction problems. She’s got internet connection.
00:20.20 vigorbranding It’s still going just gonna let rather than stop it ended I think we’ll just I’ll trim this up so you let’s start over. Okay hi I’m really excited about today’s guest mainly because I love a good origin story. Our guest today is Craig Bernstein he’s the founder of dock be’s fresh kitchen restaurants Craig I really appreciate you joining us today. Um, ah you and I met like ah I don’t know a couple months ago out in l a and I got to talking to you and I just love a good story. So welcome to the show | |||
| Ep 82: Martino Brambilla / President of Embassy Ingredients | 10 juin 2024 | 00:30:32 | |
Embassy Ingredients combines creativity and science to provide its customers with the very best innovative flavors and bakery ingredients available. Embassy Ingredients has an on-site flavor lab and full bakery test kitchen staffed with certified flavorists, food scientists and bakery specialists.They formulate, test and manufacture a wide range of flavors and bakery ingredients ensuring that taste, quality and performance are built into every product. Natural ingredients and colors have taken over, with nearly 80% of flavors and ingredients being natural. Using high quality, natural ingredients is something Embassy Ingredients has been focused on for many years. It is possible to have indulgence AND clean labels. Many products that are indulgent and taste great have clean labels. The technology today allows for the use of natural ingredients that taste as good or better than the artificial ingredients of the past. The typical Embassy customer takes 12-18 months to launch a new product. For that reason, tracking trends that are in the earliest stages and will still be relevant a year from now is important. QUOTES]“When I started, I was the only employee. I got the orders in the morning, made them in the afternoon, delivered them the next day and got more orders.” (Martino) “As a 17 year old kid I found out that persistence and perseverance were the personality traits you need as an entrepreneur.” (Martino) “In the 90s I’d say about 80% of the flavors that were sold were artificial and 20% were natural. Right now it’s about 80% natural and 20% artificial.” (Martino) “We’ve always tried to keep the junk out of mixes. Just because you’re buying something you want to indulge in, doesn’t mean it has to be completely unhealthy for you.” (Martino) “If it’s not needed inside the product, why put it in?” (Martino) “When you indulge, it better be good. You don’t want something that’s being made as inexpensively as possible.” (Martino) “Every crisis you face you learn some new business skills you didn’t know you had.” (Martino) “During a crisis (like COVID), people eat more sweets than in a non-crisis.” (Martino) “If you taste test new recipes for a living, you get really good at tasting without eating.” (Martino) TRANSCRIPT00:01.76 vigorbranding Today’s guest is someone who knows a lot about ingredients a lot about flavor trends and a lot about baked goods. He’s Martino Babila and he’s the founder and president of embassy ingredients welcome to show Martino and thank you very much for joining us. So.
00:13.47 Martino Thank you Michael thanks for being glad to be on the show.
00:18.41 vigorbranding Yep, So tell everyone you know a little bit about Embassy ingredients. What’s your mission and what do you guys? do.
00:21.59 Martino So embassy ingredients is centered on the bakery trace so we supply ingredients to large scale bakeries. So we have a side of our business that makes flavors and a side that makes the industrial version you might say of a Duncan hides cake mix. So when you go off to your supermarket or to Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks you’ll find our ingredients and a lot of the baker that you’re going to be buying at those qsars or supermarkets.
00:47.54 | |||
| Ep 81: Benjamin Calleja / CXO of Livit Design | 23 mai 2024 | 00:42:19 | |
Livit Design is the leading design firm specialized in creating unique guest experiences in the Food & Beverage and all areas of Hospitality, Fitness and Retail sectors. For over 20 years, Livit has worked as strategic advisors to investors and global brands on design, operations, guest journey and guest experience with the focus on improving efficiency, profitability and increasing growth potential. Livit Design bills itself as “a perfect mix of foodies, architects, interior designers, guest experience specialists, chefs, kitchen consultants, operations experts, entrepreneurs, graphic artists, DJ’s, visionaries and restaurant operators.” One of the projects Benjamin and Livit Design is working on is called The Line. Located in Saudi Arabia by the Red Sea, The Line is billed as the future of urban living. The 105-mile long structure is just 650 feet wide and will eventually be home to more than nine million people. It has no roads, cars or emissions and runs on 100% renewable energy. All great restaurant design has to touch the emotions of diners, but there’s not a magic wand that does that. Doing that requires great design and so many other touchpoints and factors. According to Ben, the hospitality industry is divided into two sides. One side focuses on convenience and the other is focused on experience. The Livit team is helping restaurant staff focus on hospitality by creating systems that automatically adjust sensory factors like scent and sound (music) to create better diner experiences. QUOTES“I believe that one of the biggest differences between what we do and a regular design firm, but what’s really challenging is understanding the operations. How do you make sure that you create designs that are profitable? That’s where design really matters.” (Benjamin) “It could be the scents, it could be the sounds, it could be the thickness of the menu. There are so many small details in creating that holistic experience.” (Benjamin) “Consumers are getting picky. You go out less. The bland experiences – trying to be everything to everyone – those are the brands that are really suffering. You need to be niche, you need to create a phenomenal experience and you need to be a driver.” (Benjamin) “Restaurant design is an investment, not a cost.” (Benjamin) “Brands that try to be everything to everyone – they’re audience is literally dying. That’s a struggle in a world where everything is becoming more specialized.” (Benjamin) “We’re going to see a lot more artificial intelligence (in restaurants and design). It’s going to be better than humans at a lot of the repetitive tasks. Whether that’s comps and analysis, restaurant layouts, optimization of spaces, etc.” (Benjamin) “I’m a lighting freak. I think lighting and acoustics are the two things that designers will often overlook and they’re not well taught in design schools.” (Benjamin) “The things you touch – the cutlery, the table, the chairs, the glassware, the plateware – those are the most important things.” (Benjamin) TRANSCRIPT00:00.00 vigorbranding Well hello today’s guest is someone at the forefront of restaurant design. His name is Ben Kaa I probably pronounced it wrong even though I practice and he’s the founder and chief experience officer at design the what’s ama | |||
| Ep 80: Dan Rowe / CEO of Fransmart | 09 mai 2024 | 00:47:54 | |
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) TRANSCRIPT00:00.00 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 | |||
| Ep 79: Jason E. Brooks / Founder of HospiVation | 18 avr. 2024 | 00:41:17 | |
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) TRANSCRIPT00:00.00 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 afte | |||
| Ep 78: Emily Rugaber / VP of Marketing for Thanx | 04 avr. 2024 | 00:33:46 | |
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) TRANSCRIPT00:00.00 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 | |||
| Ep 77: Betsy Hamm / CEO of Duck Donuts | 21 mars 2024 | 00:26:37 | |
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) TRANSCRIPT00:00.00 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 | |||
| Ep 76: Jay Cipra / CEO of Broaster Company | 07 mars 2024 | 00:33:45 | |
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. QUOTES“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) TRANSCRIPT00:01.14 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 | |||
| Ep 75: Mark Schostak / Executive Chairman of TEAM Schostak Family Restaurants | 22 févr. 2024 | 00:27:04 | |
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. QUOTES“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’ | |||
| Ep 74: Rob Grimes / Founder & CEO of IFBTA | 11 janv. 2024 | 00:29:46 | |
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) TRANSCRIPT00:01.96 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 | |||
| Ep 73: Andrew Glantz / Founder of GiftAMeal | 14 déc. 2023 | 00:35:21 | |
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) TRANSCRIPT00:00.00 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 en | |||
| Ep 72: James Passafaro / Co-Founder of opsi | 28 sept. 2023 | 00:24:09 | |
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) TRANSCRIPT00:01.48 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 | |||
| Ep 71: Dan Costello / CEO of Home Run Inn Pizza | 13 sept. 2023 | 00:23:32 | |
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) TRANSCRIPT00:00.22 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 extr | |||
| Ep 70: Joseph Szala / Digital Guru & Bullhearted Author | 29 août 2023 | 00:30:54 | |
Joseph is the former host of Forktales and is currently working as the VP of Digital Experience for 3 Owl. He’s also the author of “Stop Blasting My Mama” (a book about effective email marketing) and “The Bullhearted Brand: Building Bullish Restaurant Brands That Charge Ahead of the Herd.” Joseph’s book, “Stop Blasting My Mama,” tackles the topic of email marketing and how modern marketing is overrun with overly aggressive terms – like blast and campaign – to describe what should be a friendly and civil interaction with consumers. Consumers today have more power today and can ignore brands – or cancel brands – whenever they want to. Technology is changing the restaurant industry and restaurants need to get onboard with that technological evolution or risk being left behind. QUOTES“One day we’ll be able to do a podcast without mentioning the pandemic. Today is not that day.” (Joseph) “I always cringe when I hear the words ‘e-blast’ or things like that because it’s antithetical to behaviors of humans in general. Nobody is walking around saying ‘Gosh, I really hope I get blasted today.’” (Joseph) “I like to think of this world that we’re in as one big party. If you walked into that party alone and you said at top of your lungs, ‘Hey everyone, I just want you to know that I’m really cool.” You’re immediately not and you’re going to have a hard time convincing everyone that you are.” (Joseph) “Restaurants are the backbone of every single economy – from micro local to federal. If you lose restaurants in the city center, you’ve lost the city center.” (Joseph) “The first victims of AI are the ones who phone it in. The mediocre hamburger won’t be there anymore.” (Joseph) “Bro, we are not eating bugs. It’s not happening. Unless there’s some sort of nuclear holocaust, Americans are not eating bugs.” (Joseph) TRANSCRIPT00:01.20 vigorbranding Well hey there um some of you watching this may be a little confused right now usually ah Joseph is on ah on the left side of your screen and for those that who are watching ah this podcast. The reason he’s on the right side is because he’s a guest a guest today. And I was honored to be 1 of Joseph’s guests way back when um, the reason we’ve switched sides is Joseph has accepted another position. He’s no longer with vigor or the provone marketing group but he’s off into some wonderful new things that he’s going to talk to us about and we’re excited to to catch up with Joseph. Um. For those don’t know my name is Michael Pavone I’m the Ceo of the provevone group and we have several different agencies in our holding company and we’re excited to talk to Joseph. He’s created 67 fantastic episodes and we’re going to hit a little bit of your. History the the the good old days. Ask you some questions and just just find out what you’re up to.
00:55.28 Joseph Szala Awesome. It’s great to be here.
01:00.95 vigorbranding Ah, since you’re in your house. It probably is always great to be there. But anyway, all right? So ah, let’s see let’s it’s talk. Let’s talk about a little bit. What have you been up to talk about your career which you’re heading to now and what you’re excited a | |||
| Ep 69: Caroline Skinner / COO of Tupelo Honey | 10 août 2023 | 00:35:53 | |
Caroline serves as Chief Operating Officer of Tupelo Honey and is a champion of high-growth, employee-centric workplaces. She joined the company as part of the initial senior leadership team in 2013. In Caroline’s nine-year tenure, she has been responsible for Tupelo Honey’s workforce expansion efforts, founding and leading its human resources and training teams and growing the brand from two locations and less than 100 employees to 22 locations and more than 15,000 employees. Tupelo Honey’s goal is to be at the forefront of the employee experience and at the forefront of what can be the new experience for restaurant workers. Sixty percent of Tupelo Honey’s management positions are filled from within the company. . Like a lot of restaurants, many Tupelo Honey managers started as servers or dishwashers, which helps them relate to entry level employees and makes them better managers. Communications methods like text alerts for younger workers (instead of email) work well for Tupelo Honey and its employees. It’s important for companies to initiate conversations with employees about culturally significant events that might impact employees, even if those conversations are difficult to have. Those conversations build trust with employees and show that a company cares. QUOTES
“The restaurant industry is being required to level up in how we’re looking at the employee experience.” (Caroline) “We have to add the human element back (in restaurant employment) and care about people holistically. They have a life outside of work and they want support beyond just a paycheck.” (Caroline) “Entry level workers want to stay. They want a path to grow their careers.” (Caroline) “Younger workers and millennial workers learn differently. We’ve had to recognize that there’s a different way to communicate with them.” (Caroline) “Every employee is different and restaurants can’t have a one-size-fits-all program. You have to have options for everyone.” (Caroline) “What we do is simple. At the end of the day, it’s about one guest, one relationship and one experience.” (Caroline) TRANSCRIPT00:00.00 vigorbranding Everyone today I’m joined by my new friend Carolyn Skinner she is the Ceo so Ceo oh not yet although Carolyn there has been a history of people on this show getting rapidly promoted. So don’t want to dangle the carrot it could happen.
00:10.69 caroline Hello that.
00:14.32 vigorbranding Ceo of tupalo honey which we’re going to dig into the concept a little bit throughout this episode talk a lot of other things as well for now Carolyn say hello and give a little backstory.
00:24.80 caroline Yeah, thank you Joseph for having me. Um I am Caroline Skinner chief operating officer I am a native of Asheville North Carolina which is also the home. Um, an original location for Tupelo Honey um and our restaurant brand has been around for about 20 years we really started to grow in the last ten years I’ve been with the company for 10 years and seen pretty much all of the last twenty of our 21 locations launch in open so I’m really happy to be here.
00:53.85 vigorbranding I awesome yeah and I appreciate you taking the time out so we work together put together an awesome production sheet I think there’s so many great things to talk | |||
| Ep 68: Carl Orsbourn / COO and Co-Founder of JUICER | 27 juil. 2023 | 00:43:08 | |
JUICER is bringing dynamic pricing to the restaurant industry. Together with their customers who operate more than 4,000 restaurants across the globe, JUICER is applying machine learning algorithms to help restaurants optimize their digital menu pricing. Carl is also the co-author of “Delivering the Digital Restaurant,” a book that explores the world of off premise food and the massive disruption facing American restaurants through first-hand accounts of restaurateurs, food industry veterans, and start up entrepreneurs. Dynamic pricing in the restaurant industry can mean lowering prices to increase traffic during slow hours, increasing prices for specific menu items to reflect changes in ingredient costs, or increasing prices for all menu items during peak hours, peak days or peak seasons. The result is a pricing model that ensures the right time for each sales channel to optimize a restaurant’s profitability and the guest experience. JUICER’s focus – for now – is on off-premise dynamic pricing, where the adjustment of prices is easler. On-premise dynamic pricing is more difficult (because of menus with fixed, printed prices) but will be more likely in the future. QUOTES“What JUICER is trying to do is become a full-service solution. We take 12 months of transactional data, put that through our algorithm, come up with recommended prices based on different times of day, and then our team will implement those price changes.” (Carl) “Consumers today are already experiencing dynamic pricing on DoorDash and Uber Eats. The delivery prices will change. The challenge is, restaurants aren’t getting any of the upside of that dynamism.” (Carl) “The challenge of dynamic pricing as a term can be somewhat divisive. What we’re doing at JUICER is completely avoiding anything related to surge pricing. We’re talking about relatively small changes in prices that don’t cause a negative reaction. In many ways, the customer doesn’t even notice many of the price changes.” (Carl) “There’s only one Taylor Swift. In a marketplace, there are hundreds of other pizza places that you can go to.” (Carl) “The whole idea of delivering the digital restaurant is to help restaurants understand that they have to optimize their off-premise channel. It’s far more than just turning yourself on DoorDash or Uber Eats and letting those channels run themselves.” (Carl) TRANSCRIPT00:00.41 vigorbranding Everyone today I am joined by my new friend Carl Orsburn it’s oars burn or born say with me everyone um, all joking aside Carl. Thanks for taking time out of your day and your week hang out with me while you say hello and for those that don’t know you give a little bit of backstory.
00:17.53 Carl Orsbourn Thanks! Thanks! Jo really good to be here and glad we get to spend a few few minutes together today. Um yes, I’m Carl Osborne I’m the co co-founder at juicer a dynamic pricing company for restaurants. But so. A lot of people know me from my first book that I wrote with Meredith Sandland delivering the digital restaurant that book became a bit of a bests selller and really um, cemented I t | |||
| Ep 67: Justin Bartek / VP of Marketing at Dog Haus | 19 juil. 2023 | 00:38:45 | |
The first Dog Haus opened in Pasadena, California in 2010. Since then, Dog Haus has expanded to include 91 locations throughout southern California.
Dog Haus has garnered critical acclaim and national attention for its signature all beef Haus Dogs and handcrafted proprietary Haus Sausages, as well as its 100% genetically tested, humanely raised, hormone- and antibiotic-free Black Angus beef.
Many start-up restaurants rely on a celebrity name to drive consumer interest, which calls into question the quality of the food and expertise of the celebrity when it comes to the offering.
Consistency of quality is important. Some restaurant brands don’t have standards – or don’t clearly define the standards – which means different dining experiences between each location or even at the same location. QUOTES“Our advantage is the quality of the food. It’s the product itself.” (Justin)
“We are created by people who are very much into food. That’s been our goal since day one.” (Justin)
“Zeroing in on the quality of the product. That’s not a different story. So many brands think their product is ‘the best.’ What (Dog Haus provides) is reasons to believe why that’s true.” (Joseph)
“How do you get someone to pay $8 for a hot dog when Costco sells it for $1.50. That’s a unique challenge for us. We do that with high quality ingredients. It’s not just a hot dog and you know that when you see it.” (Justin)
“Quality matters, especially on delivery.” (Justin)
“(Some restaurants) make it as cheap as possible and maximize profitability, get the money and go. I think now more than ever, the delivery game has changed that. After I’ve paid for delivery fees and that (meal) comes back tasting like garbage, that’s horrible.” (Joseph) TRANSCRIPT00:00.00 vigorbranding Everyone and today I’m joined by Justin Bartek you probably remember our episode from early on in the fork tales days I had to have him back because so much has changed since then Justin won’t you say hello and ah give us a little update on where you’ve been and where you are now.
00:16.68 Justin Bartek Yeah, man, it’s good to see you Joseph as always in the past few months about five months ago now I joined doghouse worldwide which is a hot dog brand but we do smash burgers hot dogs, gourmet sausages breakfast burritos that are actually killing it. Um. And more so it’s very exciting to be over here I’ve sort of been put in a position to help with those virtual brands that they have called the absolute brands. But I’m also you know there’s always so much to do that I’ve been helping with my own connections and background to all across the organization. So. It’s been great.
00:50.71 vigorbranding That’s awesome. So um, for those don’t remember you you used to be at the Ramen company Jinnya I Still go there. Still love their ramen.
00:56.60 Justin Bartek I’m correct.
00:58.38 vigorbranding Um, and as you said now you’re in this new position. Jinnya is a brick and mortar. It’s full service. Well it’s actually fast casual technically there’s coun | |||
| Ep 66: Troy Guard / Chef & Founder of TAG Restaurant Group | 22 mai 2023 | 00:35:39 | |
Troy was born in Hawaii. His family goes back five generations in Hawaii and was among some of the first missionaries to arrive on the islands. He started as a 14-year-old dishwasher in Maui and eventually worked his way up to a sous chef working with his mentor, Chef Roy Yamaguchi. Hawaiian culture emphasizes “ohana” which means family. Troy has worked hard to embrace that same family atmosphere in his restaurants. It’s difficult to maintain a restaurant culture as a restaurant grows. Owners often find themselves having to choose between managers who are a good cultural fit but underperform as managers or vice versa. Taking care of guests is critical and is the foundation of any restaurant’s success. Troy’s vision for TAG Restaurant Group changed during COVID. His new steak restaurant in Houston opened three months before COVID and struggled in 2020 and 2021, but rebounded in 2022 to become a successful location today. Quotes“(When it comes to ingredients), I was taught early on working in California, Hawaii, New York and Hong Kong that you utilize what you can from where you’re from.” (Troy) “Authentic and real. I think everyone can see when something is genuine. We try to hire people who are genuinely hospitable. Even if they don’t know how to cook but they have a good attitude and want to, we like those types of people.” (Troy) “The days of people staying for 10 plus years are probably long gone.” (Troy) “Pay is, of course, one factor, but it’s not THE factor.” (Joseph) “Our core values are passion, imagination, courage, caring, humility, harmony and ownership. That’s what I want to see in people. I want to give them ownership to do what they think is best.” (Troy) “It’s really tough to foster a culture when you spread out (to multiple locations).” (Joseph) “Two weeks in (at my first restaurant), we were $40,000 in the hole. My investors said if you don’t change we’ll have to close. The second month we lost $20,000. The third we broke even. And the fourth – I swear to God – we made $40,000. We made an $80,000 swing in four months by just focusing and working together. ” (Troy) “Marketing can get people to visit once. It’s the restaurant’s job to get them to come back.” (Joseph) Transcript00:00.81vigorbrandingEveryone today I’m joined by chef troy guard from tag restaurant group which you’re going to learn all about if you’re not already familiar. Um Troy say hello give a little bit of backstory. 00:11.84Chef Troy Guardgood morning good afternoon good evening whatever time we’re listening to here. It’s March Seventeenth St Patrick’s day and I’m just chilling in my marketing’s ah my marketers’ room right now. So talking to Joseph in the. Excited to be on board. Thanks for having me. 00:29.77vigorbrandingAwesome! Well Troy so you grew up in Hawaii um, which it’s islands that I absolutely love and now you find yourself imp possibly the complete opposite. You’re a mile up in the air in Denver. 00:35.91Chef Troy GuardUm, you know. 00:42.93vigorbrandingUm, what led you to Denver from Hawaii and and how have those roots from the islands influenced your cooking and your outlook on life. 00:50.48Chef Troy GuardYeah, thank you so yup board on the islands we’re 5 generations of being in Hawaii even though we’re white where you know some of the first missionaries to come over there which is kind of cool. Um, great stories back there. Um I left when I was. You know, 21 and just kind of just went all over the plac | |||
| Ep 65: Sterling Douglass / Co-founder and CEO of Chowly | 24 avr. 2023 | 00:35:46 | |
Chowly is a cloud-based solution that helps restaurants of all sizes integrate third-party online ordering systems into point-of-sale (POS) systems to manage orders, payments, billing, and more.The end result is a technology that saves restaurants time and money. Earlier this year, Chowly launched its Restaurant Control Center, which serves as a centralized hub for integrations and empowers restaurants with consolidated data and business insights. Sterling found that a lot of online ordering systems had great consumer experiences or great operations and back-end experiences for restaurants, but not both. Chowly’s acquisition of Koala allowed them to offer superior experiences to both consumers and restaurants. Sterling predicts that dynamic pricing will take off in 2023, with companies like Sauce, Pricing and Juicer leading the way. Apps need to provide an intrinsic value. They can’t just be used to check a box. Dynamic pricing will be a shaky system at first, but after 18-24 months, it will have found its footing and be widely accepted by consumers. Quotes“Co-opetition is wild in the restaurant space. The amount of overlap of features from point-of-sale to online ordering companies to loyalty systems to marketing systems – everyone’s got overlap of features.” (Sterling) “I feel like the restaurant industry is going through a bundling cycle right now. It’s not uncommon to see industries go through bundling and unbundling cycles.” (Sterling) “The consolidation has to make sense. It has to pair well together. Consolidation for consolidation’s sake isn’t helpful to anyone.” (Sterling) “The first question to ask is, ‘Do I need another app on my phone?’ I’m at the point now where the only time an app really matters is if it’s completely built with the customer in mind.” (Joseph) “Half of the restaurant industry is small operators and independents. We don’t have the same big-player mentality (as the travel industry).” (Sterling) “You can’t commoditize a really great burger. The airlines are very much commoditized. The experiences are very similar. In a restaurant, they’re completely different.” (Sterling) “As digital threatens the viability of restaurant dining rooms, the question becomes, ‘What makes my dining room worth sitting in?’” (Joseph) “Restaurants need to meet consumers where they are. I don’t think on-premise is going away, no matter how much I love the convenience of getting my food delivered to me.” (Sterling) Quotes00:00.55vigorbrandingHey guys today I’m joined by my new friend sterling Douglas he’s the co-founder and Ceo of Chali which we’re gonna dive into a lot so many things happening over there and just so you know we’ve been chatting for about 10 minutes on all things. So I think it’s gonna be great episode. Ah. Sterling say hello and give up a backstory. 00:17.83Sterling _Chowly_Hey Joseph thanks for having me on I’m excited to kind of dive into a bunch of these topics that we were getting into yeah cofounder Ceo Chali where digital platform that enables restaurants to expand their off-prem capabilities before. Chaey I used to be an actuary deep into data analytics and just found that data really wasn’t moving cleanly between restaurants and you know that really prompted kind of the founding for chaey so that we could take data from you know uber eats grubhubs of the world an | |||
| Ep 64: David Jones / President of The Excellence Advisory & Coach of Winning Restaurants | 17 avr. 2023 | 00:34:07 | |
David is a performance excellence coach focused on teaching, consulting and executive coaching for small to medium sized businesses, including many restaurants. David spent six years as a business/excellence coach for Pal’s Excellence Institute. Pal’s – or Pal’s Suddenly Service – is a drive-through only 31-location restaurant chain located in northeast Tennessee and southwestern Virginia. The restaurant is known for its speed, hospitality, cleanliness and people. Pal’s relies heavily on word-of-mouth marketing. That word-of-mouth allows Pal’s to spend roughly half as much on marketing as some of its similar competitors. According to David, COVID gave restaurants a second chance to make a first impression. Restaurants that were struggling before the pandemic were struggling after the pandemic, pointing to an internal flaw that contributes to that struggle. Some restaurants used the pandemic as a chance to reset and improve themselves to make a second first impression and win over new customers after the pandemic ended. Quotes“What we see now is a lot of sculptures and spokescharacters have been discontinued. Architecturally speaking, we’re getting modern boxes that don’t have much life.” (Joseph) “If you look at the new (restaurant) designs, they’re all basically the same. You really want to stand out in a sea of sameness.” (David) “How often in life do you get a second chance to make a first impression? If customers are coming back (after the pandemic), we have a chance to win them over and leave all that past behind.” (David) “If people aren’t buying it, it’s because they don’t want it.” (Joseph) “If you think about a restaurant and what it does, it’s really a manufacturing operation. You’re manufacturing food in real time for a specific order based on your menu.” (David) “Systems are one thing, but activating them tends to be where the rubber meets the road and where most people hit the road.” (Joseph) “Twenty percent of the effort is putting a system in place and 80% of the effort is sustaining it. You have to make it a habit. You have to change in a way that it’s harder to go back than it is to go forward.” (David) Transcript00:00.91vigorbrandingEveryone today I’m joined by my friend David Jones he’s the president of a company called the excellence advisory which we’ll get into in a little bit. Um, but before we do David why don’t you say hello and give a little bit of backstory. 00:11.50David M_ JonesWell hello joseph and thanks for having me on today I considered a personal and professional honor to be here with you speaking to your audience and I’m actually an engineer by training 25 years in corporate America and then I had the great blessing and ability to work with. Pals through their business excellence institute which I hope we get to talk about and did that for 7 years and ah and today I do teaching consulting and coaching executive coaching for small to medium sized businesses including a lot of restaurants. 00:49.83vigorbrandingThat’s awesome. Yeah, so pals is um, essentially what prompted our connection on Linkedin. Um, and honestly it’s a concept I had never heard of they’re they’re not here in Georgia or in Central Pennsylvania so I just never come across them. But what really grabbed my attention and prompted our discussion was. Um, pal’s sudden service is what it’s called has these amazing huge sculptures on their buildings sculptures of their food like hamburgers and drinks and all kinds of things and this just struck | |||
| Ep 63: Meredith Sandland / CEO of Empower Delivery & Digital Restaurant Dynamo | 06 mars 2023 | 00:39:28 | |
Meredith is the CEO of Empower Delivery. The company’s software combines the consumer journey, the product journey, and the logistics journey into one integrated piece of software. The software enables all restaurants to profitably and sustainably serve the growing consumer demand for delivered meals. Meredith is also the co-author of “Delivering the Digital Restaurant,” a book that explores the world of off-premise food and the massive disruption facing American restaurants through first-hand accounts of restaurateurs, food industry veterans and start-up entrepreneurs. Many restaurants face complexity in the number of tools and apps they use to manage their day-to-day operations. The restaurant industry is showing unprecedented levels of technological innovation – particularly when it comes to ordering – which makes third-party apps and aggregators important for streamlining incoming orders. Innovation is also being seen in restaurant loyalty programs, which have come a long way since the Subway punch cards of the past. Quotes“A lot of restaurant brands were forced into adopting delivery (during the pandemic) when maybe they otherwise didn’t want to.” (Meredith) “For operations, it’s really about eliminating complexity. There are so many channels and consumers are coming in so many different ways that it creates complexity. As you eliminate complexity, you will find that you have better financial outcomes.” (Meredith) “Every facet of the restaurant industry is being revolutionized by technology.” (Joseph) “Not every server can be the best, but technology can take the elements of that best server and make them consistent across every server. Technology used well in that setting should make the experience better.” (Meredith) “The restaurant industry is one of the only industries where all five senses are engaged.” (Joseph) “A really sophisticated digital restaurant is using 15-20 pieces of software.” (Meredith) Transcript00:00.00vigorbrandingEveryone today I’m joined by my friend Meredith Sandlin she’s the Ceo of empowered delivery and the co-author of delivering the digital restaurant if you are on Linkedin Chances are you have seen her or heard from her because she is out there rocking it. In the media talking about digital or delivery digital. All that stuff. So Marilyn before we hop in while you say hello and give a little bit of backstory. 00:24.58MeredithHi there. Well so good to be on the show. Um I’ve been listening and it is such a good podcast. So I’m excited to be part of it. Um, so yeah, my name is Meredith Sandland and I am the Ceo of empower delivery as well as the co-author of. Delivering the digital restaurant. Ah, your roadmap to the future of food and also the forthcoming delivering the digital restaurant the path to digital maturity which will be out in a couple of weeks here maybe by the time this podcast hears I don’t know we’ll find out. 00:54.94vigorbrandingDad’s awesome if it is. We’ll definitely have a link to it or at the very least have a link to pre-order I’m excited to get my hands on it. Um, you probably can’t really see it folks but right back here and on my bookshelf is the book and so um I’m excited to read the new one. Um. 01:08.90MeredithUm, if you think awesome. 01:12.15vigorbrandingSo delivery. It’s acing it is just like a really big challenge for restaurant brands large and small. So I think before the pandemic a lot were sort of adverse to it because they didn’t really see the value. Ah | |||
| Ep 62: Zach Anderson / Brand Partner at Seasoned & Restaurant Talent Rainmaker | 20 févr. 2023 | 00:33:56 | |
Seasoned is the only social community exclusively for service industry workers. The app allows hospitality workers to connect and share insights and experiences. It’s also a job listing resource that connects restaurants looking for staff members with potential employees looking for work. Traditional hiring websites aren’t well suited for hourly jobs and careers in the hospitality industry. Seasoned solves that. When it comes to hiring, the hospitality industry faces challenges from other hourly sectors, which often offer jobs that are less stressful than restaurant work. It’s essential for restaurants to focus on the benefits that they can provide to their employees in order to attract and retain quality workers. Centralized ownership, not franchise ownership, often does a better job of creating a successful HR and hiring model. Quotes“The pandemic had a historic impact. It slingshotted all of us past the laziness and apprehension and forced us to change and one big change is the labor market.” (Joseph) “If you look at the actual things that you gain from working in a restaurant, there’s an incredible number of attractive qualities that you gain from working in a restaurant. The skills that you build in a restaurant are going to help you wherever you go.” (Zach) “I was a busser for six months, and to this day whenever I have a bad day I think to myself, ‘At least I’m not bussing tables.’” (Joseph) “With younger workers, what you’re hiring for is attitude, reliability and coachability. You can teach anyone to do the job within the restaurant, but having those attributes […] you can teach anyone to be great.” (Zach) “Instead of ‘You work for us,’ it’s ‘We work for you.’ That shift is really impactful (when hiring and retaining talent).” (Zach) Transcript00:00.00vigorbrandingEveryone today I’m joined by my friend Zach Anderson he’s brand partner at seasoned a system that we’re going to dive into here in a bit but before we do Zach say hello give a little bit of backstory on yourself. 00:11.91Zach AndersonThanks Joseph hi next meet everyone. My name’s Zach Anderson my like Joseph mentioned I’m a brand partner over it seasoned I’ve been in the restaurant space for about 15 years across a mix of both operations as well as on the vendor and supplier side working in. Various capacities across things like ad media to voice ai kiosk hardware and most recently I’ve been over here at season working on our mission to help bring the service industry together by offering a community-based product for restaurant workers to engage each other and find great jobs. 00:45.49vigorbrandingThat’s amazing. Yeah I’m really excited to pry in I’m I’m kind of holding myself back because we will get to it but I do want to talk about the the big l word right now which is the labor issues that we’re challenged with in the industry. Um, from my point of view. It’s kind of a long time coming. Um, anybody that thought we you know restaurants could continue to operate the the way that they had for as long as they have just really was blinding themselves in a lot of ways. So I’m going to use the pw word now I’m getting sick of saying it. But since the pandemic you know the pandemic had this historic impact I think it’s slingshot at all of us. Ah. Past the laziness or apprehension and just forced us to change and 1 big change is the labor market not just the availability of people but the people willingness to work the work ethic and the passion for the i | |||
| Ep 61: Zach Goldstein / CEO of Thanx, loyalty leader and restaurant money-maker | 06 févr. 2023 | 00:38:41 | |
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. Restaurants can take a page from the Delta playbook – which includes the potential for free first class upgrades (a perk that costs nothing to Delta) – including the use of secret menu items. Loyalty programs should not be dependent upon an app because most consumers won’t download the app. Instead, the loyalty program should be embedded in the web ordering experience. The app is still useful, as users of a restaurant’s app have high lifetime value. Consumers respond to non-discount offers quite effectively. For example, a restaurant can offer loyal customers a VIP experience that allows those customers to try new menu items (along with a non-VIP friend) before the items are available publicly. The entry point into a loyalty program shouldn’t be by downloading an app. What Thanx does is builds the loyalty enrollment into the digital ordering experience because 70% of online ordering comes via the restaurant’s website, not via an app. Quotes“The playbook is pretty simple. You need to own the relationship with your customer, because if you sacrifice that to the third party, then you have no control over their lifetime value.” (Zach) “Loyalty is no longer about just rote rewards programs and discounts and more around personalization. That really matters, because as you deliver more personalization, you become less dependent on discounts as your loyalty mechanism and can still be effective.” (Zach) “Can you imagine what McDonald’s top one percent customers would do if they had year round McRibs? That’s the type of thing people care about.” (Zach) “There are a lot of restaurant leaders who have been convinced that the app is the answer. It’s actually not the answer. It’s one answer to a bigger need.” (Joseph) “Data is king. At the end of the day, you have to have data. And there’s no other way in the restaurant business to capture that data unless you have a loyalty program.” (Zach) “It’s really hard to drive repeat purchasing if you don’t know who your best customers are. That’s the value of data. It’s a risk to not have it and it’s an opportunity when you have it.” (Zach) Transcript00:00.00vigorbrandingEveryone today I am joineded by my friend Zach Goldstein he is the Ceo and founder of thanks a system that we are going to dig into but we’re going to talk about a lot of other things today too before we do Zach say hello give a little bit of backstory. 00:15.63Zach GoldsteinYeah, pleasure. Really happy to be with you. My background started before thanks and working with restaurants and retailers to to really build customer lifetime value and that has become a passion of mine. Ah, That’s really what thanks does targeted at Restaurants. How do we help them identify where their best customers are and make more of their customers. Those best customers. 00:38.65vigorbrandingI Love it. So a few years ago you you penned an article and I think this this is what really struck me and um, you know serves as a basis for the episode a little bit but that article is called the 4 horsemen of the restaurant apocalypse which of course is a very doom gloom. It’s very like whoa. Um, what does that mean and I think the article centers on taking some lessons from the travel industry and the effect that online travel agencies otas for short had on evolving our | |||
| Ep 60: Carin Stutz / President & CEO of Native Foods and vegan trailblazer | 23 janv. 2023 | 00:37:16 | |
Native Foods is a fast-casual vegan restaurant chain that operates in California, Oregon, Colorado, and Illinois. Carin has held leadership positions at Red Robin, Applebee’s and Wendy’s. Dealing with an unpredictable supply chain is the biggest challenge for Native Foods Native Foods is careful to only use healthy ingredients and avoid ingredients found on many “do not eat” lists. Native Foods locations gravitate toward the coasts where vegan and plant-based trends are more popular. The Native Foods team tests ads targeted to vegans and ads targeted to flexitarians but marketing targeted to vegans still performs best in driving traffic. Quotes“Every organization out there – whether it’s plant-based or meat-based – is struggling with supply chain issues. One of the advantages for plant-based restaurants is that we can make anything (we need). We can make any of our products in-house.” (Carin) “One of the first things I did when I came onboard was reduce sodium levels by 25%. And honestly, they taste better!” (Carin) “One thing that I’ve been notably ignorant about is that veganism is huge in the African American community.” (Joseph) “Vegans are much more adventurous and willing to try new things on the menu.” (Carin) “Since you have such a plant-forward concept, the consistency of ingredients has to be a priority.” (Joseph) “The innovation that we’ve seen in our chicken substitutes (is amazing). We’ve had guests come across the counter and say ‘This is supposed to be a vegan restaurant! You are serving me real chicken!” (Carin) “When the pandemic hit, everyone in the restaurant industry started working well together.” (Carin) Transcript00:00.00vigorbrandingEveryone today I’m joined by my friend Karen Stutz she’s the president and Ceo of native foods and if you are not familiar with native foods yet you’re about to get very familiar. It’s an interesting concept and we’re going to dive into that and so much more on today’s episode before we do Karen say hello and give a little bit of backstory. 00:17.90Carin StutzHey Joseph it’s fun to spent a little time together and thanks for the opportunity to talk about native foods about the industry native foods. We always say we’re kind of the og of vegan restaurants right? We we started back in 9094 long before anybody was really thinking about plant-based food. So. The brand has really stood the test of time we have 12 locations. We’re in 3 states. We’re in California Colorado in Illinois and it’s just the boy what a time to be in plant based dining right now you know any kind of trend that you look you know at what’s going on in the industry top trends top ideas. Plant based this if it’s not number one. It’s usually number 2 so we’re having a lot of fun in this cute little innovative brand. 01:03.93vigorbrandingI love it. So speaking about you first a little bit here. Um you this isn’t your first rodeo and I’m not very convinced that 1 rodeo would be enough to make you a pro anyway. Um, but you’ve held a number of leadership positions. You’ve been at the helm of red Robin Applebee’s wendy’s. 01:09.94Carin StutzUm, true. 01:14.38Carin StutzA. 01:21.70vigorbrandingHow how do you make the transition from brands of that size to a brand that is scrappy growing and the size I think you said 12 Um, and then how do you make the shift from brands that are selling an um, omnivorous offering. 01:23.94Carin StutzNo. | |||
| Ep 59: Adenah Bayoh, CEO and Founder & One-Woman Economic Engine | 05 janv. 2023 | 00:42:59 | |
Adenah Note about escaping war torn country. Today, she’s the owner of four IHOP franchises and founder of four restaurants of her own, including three locations of fast casual, farm-to-table, soul food restaurant Cornbread and her newest dining venture, Urban Vegan. Adenah opened her first IHOP in Irvington Township, New Jersey at the age of 27, making her one of the youngest IHOP franchisees in the country. Today, Adenah is the second largest employer in Irvington Township. Adenah’s grandmother showed her how to overcome adversity to succeed and taught her the value of working hard every day. Supporting her community is important to Adenah. She believes that housing is a right and owns and operates affordable housing developments in several communities. During the early days of the pandemic, Adenah opened her restaurant’s doors to help feed kids who were missing out on school lunches while schools were shut down. Quotes“People talk about luck all the time. Oftentimes I am the underdog. People always look at me and say, “She can’t do this. She’s not capable.” It’s those doubts that fuel me.” (Adenah) “I think we have a stigma with underdogs that it’s a bad thing. I would rather be an underdog than a leader. Being an underdog keeps you looking ahead, being a leader makes you look back. You always have to be looking over your shoulder as a leader and looking to see who’s coming up on you.” (Joseph) “If I can be more successful, I can give back more (to my communities). I believe that we as a community have to take care of each other. When you have the opportunity to give, just do it.” (Adenah) “I learned from an early age (while starting at McDonald’s) that the customer is always right. Another thing I learned was systems. There is a system for everything. So I knew when I started my businesses, we had to have a system.” (Adenah) “I started in the restaurant space through franchising. Franchising allows someone to come into a system that’s already been tested and join that partnership.” (Adenah) “During the pandemic, we were told to ‘support local’ but I reminded people that the McDonald’s down the street is also local. It’s owned by a local family and they hire local people. Support them, too.” (Joseph) “If you’re persistent, you will get it. And if you’re consistent, you will keep it.” (Adenah) Transcript00:00.00vigorbrandingHey everyone this morning I have the distinct pleasure of talking with my friend Adina Byo she is the founder at her own companies of which there are many. We’re going to unpack all of them and all the efforts that Adena has been doing over the years before we jump in adna say hello and give a little bit of backstory. 00:18.60adenahHi Joseph my good new friend I just met with his beautiful new baby. Ah, my name is Adina Bio I am founder and Ceo of Adina Bio and companies and all that means is that we own 8 restaurants we own. 00:23.90vigorbrandingUm. 00:34.28adenahUrban vegans we own four ihopbs we own 3 corn bread which is our own signature restaurants by the way as except for I have I wouldn’t take credit for that. We have real estate in affordable housing. Um I believe fundamentally believe housing is a right. 00:45.61vigorbrandingUm. 00:53.71adenahAnd I’m here as um as a conduit if I was to really say my purpose on this earth as a conit and I’m just grateful to be here with Joseph and just kind of get to know you a little bit that’s all. 01:08.96vigorbrandingThat’s wonderful. Yeah, so you scratch the surface. Um, you’re | |||
| Ep 58: Olga Lopategui / Founder of Ollo Consulting & Email & Loyalty Marketing Maven | 22 sept. 2022 | 00:31:04 | |
Olga is the founder of OLLO Restaurant Loyalty which offers expertise in loyalty and CRM for restaurant chains. The company’s key principle is simple: find out what your guests already like, then give them more of that – at scale – to drive sales. Email segmentation works best for brands with larger email databases in excess of 25,000 contacts. When segmenting for clients, Olga prefers to focus on product preference, dayparting, and spend preference. Loyalty programs can be an effective way to get customers to share their contact information and share their purchasing information. There are many email marketing services and tools available to restaurants. In most cases, if a restaurant isn’t getting what they want from the tool, it’s not because of the tool, but because the restaurant isn’t using the tool correctly. Quotes“One of the biggest challenges (with email marketing) in the past few years has been the migration of so many people to the Gmail inbox, which has a “Promotions” folder. So a lot of our emails don’t end up as in-box placements.” (Olga) “The key is figuring out how to become the communication that the recipient wants to open, because you can’t make them. You have to get them to want to do it.” (Olga) “A lot of the email systems out there today do what’s called segmentation, and I’ve seen it go wrong. For instance, I get Banana Republic emails. Oddly enough, I get more emails about ladies’ dresses than I do about the stuff that I’ve actually bought.” (Joseph) “Demographics, I think, are long gone. The only place they have meaning is when you’re trying to find people like me in other areas when you grow in scale.” (Joseph) “Email marketing is the most cost effective way to reach people who actually want to hear from you. Any other way of reaching them would cost you more money.” (Olga) “It’s not that hard to build email marketing lists, but it’s a shame that more restaurants don’t do it. And once you build the list, you have to do something with it.” (Olga) Transcript00:00.00vigorbrandingEveryone today I’m joined by my friend olga lopetegi she is the head of olo restaurant loyalty specialists and we’re going to dive into email marketing and loyalty and all those things that’s gonna be a great conversation. But first olga say hello and give a little bit of backstory. 00:14.18OlgaUm, hey hey Joseph nice and nice to see you here. So yeah I’m Olga Uppategi I’ve been in the restaurant world for close to 20 years now and I’ve um, worked with large restaurant chains over the years actually started out as ah and a very different australian lawyer and oil and gas. Um, so then he came we came to food sort of very roundab boat ways. Um, but for the last sweep. Almost four years now I’ve been running the loyalty consulting firm called olo consult and what we do with help restaurant chains that have loyalty and cm problems essentially around those chains around those problems with less effort and less resources than they would have to apply in-house. So learned a lot along the way about the restaurant restaurant business and the boat. What are the best ways to reach out to you guys. Lots of opinions. Lots of experience there. So happy to share it. 01:13.32vigorbrandingAwesome! So It’s funny because I’m sure a lot of people who are listening already are like email I know how to do that. We do that already I’ve actually heard it firsthand a number of times but there really is a lot of Theory. There’s a lot of information that goes into email marketing. An | |||
| Ep 57: Andy Pearson / VP of Creative for Liquid Death | 15 sept. 2022 | 00:35:42 | |
Liquid Death is a canned water company founded in 2017 with the tagline “Murder your thirst”. The company calls itself “a funny water company who hates corporate marketing as much as you do” with a mission to “make people laugh and get more of them to drink more water more often, all while helping to kill plastic pollution.” Much of the water industry is founded on concepts of purity and seeing that purity in the water, which is why nearly all bottled water is packaged in single-use plastic bottles. Liquid Death aims to change that with its aluminum can packaging. Wellness is a big part of its brand mission, including a use as a designated driver drink. The water category is largely a sea of sameness, with very little differentiation between various brands. Liquid Death’s success lies in being different from other brands and targeting an audience (younger consumers) that isn’t often targeted by other water brands. Quotes“Liquid Death is an evil plan to make the world healthier and more sustainable. We’re doing that through trying to replace sugary and unhealthy beverages with water and replacing single-use plastic bottles with infinitely recyclable aluminum cans.” (Andy) “The (Liquid Death) brand has so many facets to it, people come into it in totally different ways. Some people love the environmental side of it. I’ve heard people say on podcasts, “Oh that sober water, Liquid Death.” We’re not trying to be that, but we want to support anyone making healthier choices.” (Andy) “If you line up the water category, you ask yourself ‘which one of the same do you want?’” (Andy) “My job as the lead creative is to give everyone creative whiplash. That’s the fun part about Liquid Death. You never know what we’re going to do next.” (Andy) “In a world where everyone is trying to build a brand, I don’t think of Liquid Death so much as a brand as it is a character.” (Andy) “We all know how a lot of brand managers manage their brands. It is very regimented. But most of us as humans are not one personality all the time. We have idiosyncrasies.” (Joseph) Transcript00:00.00vigorbrandingEveryone and today I am here with my friend Andy Pearson he’s the vp of creative of liquid death before I hop in. Let’s start it off right and crack a nice cold liquid death sparkling water. 00:12.29AndyA yes. 00:15.26vigorbrandingWhile I take my first sip Annie say hello and give a little bit of backstory. Yeah cheers brother. 00:21.49AndyCheers man hey guys. Um I’m as you said I’m Andy Pearson I’m a vp of creative at liquid death which means basically anything that goes out the door that isn’t water is is something that that I kind of look at and and help shape from social ah social stuff we’re doing campaign work signage. Ah partnerships um, merch I mean kind of runs the gamut of basically anything that comes out of out of liquid death goes through me and before that I spent about 13 years on the advertising agency side as a. Copywriter and creative director at a number of um, fairly well well well respectced agencies I guess I’d say but I’m very happy to be a part of liquid death I’ve been there about a year now 01:04.38vigorbrandingUm, love it. Cool yeah, so we’re going to get into it. Liquid death is for the uninitiated I do want to start off with an anecdote of my initiation so I had heard of liquid death in numerous times. Um. You know, ah the high level here is liquid liquid death is a water company and we’ll put nuance on that throughout the episode I was at a t | |||
| Ep 56: Andrew O’Shea / Founder of Wellspring, Wellness Expert & Builder of Culture | 25 août 2022 | 00:37:10 | |
Wellspring is a health & wellness gift box and care package company providing turnkey solutions for human resources professionals across the globe. The employee-focused kits provide everything from better-for-you snacks to locally curated, specialty brands. Wellspring’s process starts with a frank discussion with employers to identify areas of improvement to develop a wellness plan that works for the employer and its employees. To create its wellness kits, Wellspring also partners with a variety of wellness product manufacturers, including organic, non-GMO, vegan, plant-based and others. Culture is important to any company, including restaurants, and programs that make employees feel valued and appreciated can help build that culture. Creating synergy is also important. From a fitness perspective, the pandemic affected people in different ways. Some gained weight, some lost weight and some gained half of it back. As we look at life after the pandemic, wellness is important and companies can play a role in helping employees embrace wellness – in all of its many forms – and all of the personal benefits that come with it. Wellness can be physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, financial and many other things. Quotes“Right now we’re seeing a lot of companies throwing stuff against the wall to see what sticks. We’re throwing all sorts of healthcare in your direction, we’re throwing the Calm app – these are supposed to be the solutions, but none of it is really sticking.” (Andrew) “We’re trying to figure out what’s most important to the employee, and at the end of the day it is equipping them with the tools necessary to combat life.” (Andrew) “Business owners need to understand that the word ‘benefits’ means benefits. It doesn’t mean things that are standard issue.” (Joseph) “We found that a culture centered around giving and caring for one another is the ringer for culture creation and employee retention.” (Andrew) “Accountants need to sleep better, sales people need to eat better. It’s hard to approach anything with a one-size-fits-all model. Individualized care is what’s going to be most effective.” (Andrew) “The goal of Wellspring really is to find that binding comradery that is normally found under situations of extreme duress but finding it instead under situations of extreme wellness and care.” (Joseph) Transcript00:00.00vigorbrandingEveryone today I’m joined by my friend Andrew O’shea he is the founder and Ceo of wellspring and we’re going to have a great talk about the state of the industry as it pertains to employees and teams and camaraderie and all of that. Ah, but before we do that Andrew say hello give a little bit of backstory and and you can tell people what well springs all about. 00:17.91Andrew O_SheaYeah, absolutely well. Thank you again. Joe for having me on here. Real excited to chat with you this morning. My name is Andrew O’shea for those who don’t know me I am the founder and Ceo of a company called wellspring and we provide health and wellness gift boxes and care packages. Ah to provide for employees as a part of a wellness program that is substantive and and make substantive change the the kicker here being that we oftentimes partner through companies insurance channels to help pay for this That’s a little bit about me. 00:48.78vigorbrandingI Love it. Yeah and we have a lot to talk about I think anybody who’s tuned into this episode knows that we haven’t quite cracked the nut on what some people have labeled the great resignations. Others | |||
| Ep 55: Jason Gabler / VP of Sales at Adentro, Data & Digital Hospitality Guru | 18 août 2022 | 00:38:16 | |
Adentro is a marketing solution designed to increase guest foot traffic in restaurants. The platform pairs with a restaurant’s in-store WiFi network to help businesses better understand and market to their customers based on customer visit behavior. Adentro works similar to how a tracking pixel on a company’s website might identify information about a site visitor and their interests. Using WiFi, restaurants are able to do the same thing because the WiFi is passively detecting devices every 30 seconds. And while that detection isn’t gathering identity information about the diner, Adentro makes that detection actionable by working with third-party channels like paid social, display or CTV. Digital hospitality means that every guest experience is measured and everyone gets a personalized experience with your brand. Brands often succeed not because they’re spending more on marketing, but because they’re being human and connecting with consumers on a human level. QuotesAdentro is a marketing solution designed to increase guest foot traffic in restaurants. The platform pairs with restaurant’s in-store WiFi network to help businesses better understand and market to their customers based on customer visit behavior.
Adentro works similar to how a tracking pixel on a company’s website might identify information about a site visitor and their interests. Using WiFi, restaurants are able to do the same thing because the WiFi is passively detecting devices every 30 seconds. And while that detection isn’t gathering identity information about the diner, Adentro makes that detection actionable by working with third-party channels like paid social, display or CTV.
Digital hospitality means that every guest experience is measured and everyone gets a personalized experience with your brand.
Brands often succeed not because they’re spending more on marketing, but because they’re being human and connecting with consumers on a human level. Transcript00:00.00vigorbrandingEveryone today I’m joined by my good friend Jason Gabler from a dentro. He’s a vp of sales and although that’s his focus we’re gonna be talking about so many things today that are not sales related so stay tuned and I hope you love the episode Jason say hello give a little bit backstory. 00:17.39JasonHello Joseph hello forktails audience. It’s really great to be here and I’m grateful for the time today I’ve been with a dentro for about None ars I was initially hired as an individual contributor on the sales side and over that time we’ve evolved a lot as a company. Um, focusing on none party data helping our clients and partners leverage that data to drive success for their business and and prior to that I had a background in recruiting and management consulting. So overall primarily in the tech space and and over the last five years specifically with a focus on the restaurant industry and hospitality. 00:50.28vigorbrandingExcellent, Yeah, there’s I think data and technology are I mean the biggest buzzwords in the restaurant industry. Finally I feel like it was something that we sort of talked about for a little while and then the Pandemic just has like stopped everyone in their tracks and like okay now’s the time but it’s it’s safe to say that like. 01:05.83JasonUm, yeah. 01:09.91vigorbrandingWe as humans just all of us we are living in a mobile first society we’re connected all of the time much to the chagrin of my wife and me at times. Um I like had to take the time | |||
| Ep 54: Lauren Fernandez / Founder of Full Course, Legal Scholar & Restaurant Franchise Expert | 11 août 2022 | 00:39:22 | |
Full Course is a restaurant development and investment firm that incubates and accelerates emerging fast casual restaurant brands, focusing on restaurants less than five years old with 1-10 locations. Full Course has a special focus on businesses run by women, minorities and immigrants. Cleanliness and creating an appealing dining environment is important. Restaurant owners need to make scheduled cleanings – including annual deep cleanings – a priority. Full Course works with designers to help restaurants improve their appearance and atmosphere. They create dining environments that speak to the brand’s story, purpose and mission while avoiding some of the unnecessary costs associated with creating custom materials. Full Course realizes that one of the benefits of fast casual dining is that it’s fairly recession proof. Consumers may cut corners on higher end dining during a recession, but fast casual dining is usually always within a consumer’s budget. Each Full Course client goes through an initial assessment that analyzes the restaurant’s finances, staff and leadership, marketing strategies and points of differentiation to find opportunities for Full Course to add value. Quotes“One of my favorite restaurant hacks is when you walk in and you just watch. You watch what the managers do. We all know how to do it by the book, but really great managers are proactive at putting systems in place where there may be a gap.” (Lauren) “The best ideas come from doing, especially in the world of restaurants.” (Lauren) “You can tell how well a place is managed if you just look up at the vents. I don’t know how many times I’ve looked up at the vents and said, ‘Guys, that’s so gross.’” (Joseph) “We eat with our eyes first and when you walk into a restaurant and it looks like it’s in disrepair, that matters. Those details matter. It shows a letter of care and concern about the environment and a way that you’re creating an experience for customers.” (Lauren) “We’re very attuned to efficient spending when we’re building out these units. We spend a lot of time and energy designing these restaurants so that they communicate the values of the brand but in an efficient and effective manner.” (Lauren) “People will cut spending in a lot of places, but food isn’t one of them. We all need that moment of community. We need that moment to go out and get a break from being at home.” (Lauren) “Our staples in the American diet are delicious, but we don’t need another burrito. We don’t need another hamburger. What we need is something fresh and something that is bringing something different to the market.” (Joseph) Transcript00:00.00vigorbrandingEveryone today I’m joined by my friend Lauren Fernandez she is the Ceo and founder of full course which we are going to unfurl fully in this episode Lauren wont we start by you saying hello and giving a little bit of backstory. 00:11.92Lauren FernandezYeah hi I’m Lauren ah former attorney turned restaurant owner turned restaurant investor and developer and I started full course a little over two years ago it’s been about a 10 year dream of mine to work with. Earlyage restaurant brands and they’re really in their emerging years. Um, when they’re anywhere between one and five years old and somewhere between 1 and 5 units and that is exactly what full course does so we are a fullservice solution for early stage. Fast casual restaurant concepts you can be anywhere from one to None units. We’d love to talk to you. We have a private equity fund that we use to back our inve | |||
| Ep 53: Jonathan Weathington / CEO of Shuckin’ Shack & Lobster Roll Lover | 04 août 2022 | 00:38:38 | |
Shuckin’ Shack Oyster Bar was founded in 2007 in Carolina Beach, North Carolina, and found success with its laid-back attitude and a menu of oysters, lobster rolls, and low country boils. Today, the restaurant has expanded to 16 locations across North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Maryland, and Florida, Jonathan joined Shuckin’ Shack in 2014 and quickly rose to the rank of CEO. In that role, Jonathan got the bar and grill off the ground as a franchise ownership opportunity. Jonathan and his team market Shuckin’ Shack by looking beyond oysters to promote the experience that the restaurant delivers. The integrity of the seafood product used by Shuckin’ Shack is critical to maintaining quality and safety. The oysters often arrive at restaurants within days after being taken from the water. Shuckin’ Shack knows that customers value the experience over convenience. The restaurant has made a conscious decision to deemphasize delivery. Shuckin’ Shack was able to reduce staff turnover by 38% by placing an emphasis on employee happiness and making some key changes to how employees are compensated and rewarded. Quotes“We’re sourcing product that go into our restaurants that have really high integrity, that taste better, come straight out of the water, into the steamer and onto the plate.” (Jonathan) “We’re kind of in this right-place-right-time moment. Oysters have become extremely popular, especially in the past five years. You see a lot of places adding oysters to their menus or doing limited time offerings, so for us we view seafood as the way of the future.” (Jonathan) “(Franchisees) can be difficult, especially because they’ve invested their own money – they’re entrepreneurs as a result – if they see slippage or they see an opportunity to do something cheaper, they love to dive at that.” (Joseph) “We allow our franchisees some lanes of operation, and that’s really, really important. We’re giving you choices for how you operate within those lanes.” (Jonathan) “We aren’t doing a lot of delivery because we don’t have to. We have doubled down on customer experience and we have doubled down on being the trusted source of seafood. We believe that our customers will pull up to our restaurant if they want our food and they have consistently proven that they will do that.” (Jonathan) “Some places just suck to work at.” (Joseph) | |||
| Ep 52: Kevin Bentley / VP of Technology & Automation for Papa Gino’s Pizzeria | 28 juil. 2022 | 00:38:04 | |
Papa Gino’s is a restaurant chain based in Massachusetts that specializes in traditional thin crust pizza along with pasta, subs, salads, and a variety of appetizers. As of 2022, there are 81 Papa Gino’s locations in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. Kevin attributes his 10-year NFL career to helping him develop leadership and management skills that he uses today. Papa Gino’s has an immense amount of love and respect from its New England fan base. That passion is fueled, in part, by the quality of the pizza and food it serves. Kevin and Papa Gino’s look for vendors who will work with the brand as partners in a longer, continually-involving technological journey. Kevin isn’t afraid to admit it, but he’s a pineapple on pizza kind of guy – and so is Joseph. Quotes“The biggest benefit of my collective background is being able to fit in in any environment. I’ve had so many collective experiences that it allows me to connect with people naturally and organically.” (Kevin) “Technology is a part of every single department in this organization. You either have a say in this, or the technology is going to steamroll you.” (Joseph) “At the core, as long as you continue to deliver quality food and a quality experience, that cult (following) will continue.” (Kevin) “Pretty much every challenge in a restaurant is being tackled by a tech company right now. If you don’t have leaders in these silos understanding that, embracing it and then finding someone who’s an ally like yourself that’s going to give you some great movement forward.” (Joseph) “The rate at which technology is moving, you really need a strategic partner that’s going to come along with you for the journey. I’m looking at vendors long term and how we can be strategic together.” (Kevin) “Everyone will swear they have an open API but when you start digging into the weeds, it’s not so open. The reality is, not every tech vendor can do everything well and integrations are critical for the ecosystem.” (Kevin) Transcript00:00.00vigorbrandingO sorry let me just 1 more thing it is Kevin Bentley right and it’s a Vp of technology and automation at pappainas pizzeria and Dangelo sub sandwiches. Okay, just making sure I don’t want to get on ambul like actually it’s Kevin you said it wrong all right? so. 00:04.71Kevin BentleyYep. 00:08.59Kevin BentleyUm, yep. 00:19.69vigorbranding3 2 1 hey everyone today I’m joined by my friend Kevin Bentley he is the Vp of technology and automation at papaginno’s Pizzeria and Deangelo sub sandwiches if you’re from the northeast you know those names if you’re not from the northeast you’re about to learn a bit more about them. Before we dive in Kevin say hello give a little bit of backstory. 00:40.63Kevin BentleyYeah Joseph thanks for having me on just a quick correction. It’s actually ca on it’s french no I’m just totally kid totally get it? Yeah ah no thanks for having me on I’m really excited to join you and have this discussion as. 00:45.78vigorbrandingOh kept. Ah I didn’t see the accent Mark. Ah. 01:00.30Kevin BentleyJoseph mentioned I’m the Vp of tech give you a quick backstory I know we’re gonna dive into my story a little bit so I’ll keep it really high level born or raised on the west coast in California was convinced to go to school in Chicago at northwestern to play football. Don’t ask me how they got a kid from the sunny California west coast to. Go to the Midwest where was | |||