SHIT YEAH! SHOW Episode 22 with Kellen Powers

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Let's see episode once again. We're not really sure. I think that's one of the things after the list, Chrissy, is which episode we're on. But we're almost episode 26, which. That's gonna be a good one. Don't know what we're gonna do for that, but that's a number near and dear to our heart here. So really excited to have this episode of the Shit. Yeah. Show produced, edited everything that makes this magic happen that allows me to talk about the restaurant business, how it sucks, what I love about it, and how we're changing it for the better. Yeah. Got Tyler Cook. [00:00:42] Speaker B: What's up? [00:00:43] Speaker A: Shit, yeah. [00:00:43] Speaker B: Go to your handle, tylerlcook. [00:00:47] Speaker A: He does really fun stuff. Yeah. Like exploding sauce bottles and other good stuff. Today I've got cat Kellen with us. [00:00:56] Speaker B: Hello. That's me. [00:00:58] Speaker A: Yes. Kellen and I go way back to Treehouse with one of my good friends who used to play there, and really my favorite musician in Savannah. I think that's what it comes down to is I think if you're someone who plays at the same place, like, almost every day, you kind of gotta be good at your craft and be able to work with whoever's there. [00:01:19] Speaker B: I hope so. I hope I was. You know, I hope I still am. But you were talking about Matt when you said favorite musician in town, right? No, that was. [00:01:27] Speaker A: Yeah, well, you know, professional musician, he dabbles. [00:01:30] Speaker B: That's true. [00:01:30] Speaker A: He dabbles in it. [00:01:32] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:01:33] Speaker A: You know, I've seen him use the keyboard, and it wasn't the keyboard, you know, for some. Some girls back in the early days. Maybe that's how he's got his wife, too, but. Very possible, but. [00:01:48] Speaker B: No way. [00:01:48] Speaker A: But, yeah, you know, this came to be of. Unfortunately, Treehouse has closed. [00:01:53] Speaker B: Yeah, it was a long run. It was a long, good run. [00:01:55] Speaker A: Yeah. I'm not sure how many years they were there, you know, Great. You know, I talked to the manager. He actually, you know, opened a spot in Gainesville and then did that. You know, some. Some good growth there. But, you know, the experience that I had with you was you were just a pro at your craft. And when I heard Treehouse was closing and I was dealing with live music at Zunzibar and all of the bookings and payment and coordinating musicians and cancellations, and you've got the restaurant business. And I always say the restaurant business sucks, that was something. I was like, oh, my God, there's a lot of opportunity here with it. And so I reached out to you, and you completely agreed you were like, in your experience. [00:02:35] Speaker B: Yeah, it made a lot of sense to me. I mean, the timing was perfect. But also, the music business also sucks. And kind of combining those two has been what I've been doing since we started, sat down and talked that first time. So I'm really excited to be on board here and just trying to make it better for everybody. The restaurant business, the music business, it's been a fantastic run so far. [00:03:00] Speaker A: Good, good. And you've created a ton of value. I mean, I think you came in and I was like, there's a lot of opportunity. Just dig into it with really the goal of we want to be a place that musicians love to play. [00:03:10] Speaker B: Absolutely. [00:03:10] Speaker A: I think that's it is if we can serve the musicians and make it to where it can promote them, they can make a lot of money. They can grow their own personal brand off the back of our growth. That would be amazing. And I'm not a musician. I don't know how all the wires work, all the XLR cards and all those things, but we want to create a venue that is easy for them to show up, tie into our equipment. It's a great experience for our fans, for our team, set the energy of a great happy hour. If we're activating a DJ and going that direction with some nightlife, that we're able to do it. And it's not as easy as you think. And it's not about just spending money. I think you can spend a lot of money and then just not get the end result for sure. And I think looking at it through the eyes of the musician, you know, is really key. And so you've been able to do that. But before we dive too much into that, I would like to hear if you've worked in the restaurant business, how that happened. Right. A lot of people, it's a first job. For other people, it's second chances and there's, you know, something in the middle. But you did say that you have that in the restaurant business. [00:04:09] Speaker B: Yeah. So when I first moved to Savannah, I had been a musician in New York, and. And so then I came down here, and I didn't know anybody, so I gotta make some money. So I took a job working at Old Red Lobster, and, you know, it was a short run there. And corporate restaurants are difficult to work in sometimes, but it was. I made some good friends. They're still with me today. And then I moved over to Spanky Southside, a local chain here. And that was, again, same thing. Made some great friends there. That's one of the best things in my mind about the restaurant business. Not to jump ahead, but the friends that you make are always awesome. Yeah. [00:04:50] Speaker A: Relationships. No business will give you more relationships, I think, than the restaurant business. And once you get excited about that and see that as the opportunity, I think that's where the magic happens in this business. [00:05:03] Speaker B: Absolutely. It's all about relationships with people. Like you were saying. Yeah. [00:05:07] Speaker A: So that was Red Lobster. You know, what's one story that stands out to you? There has to be one of just something ridiculous that's happened. [00:05:16] Speaker B: I'm not sure how PC I'm supposed to be on this show. [00:05:19] Speaker A: It is the shit. Yeah. Show. We live in the gray. So it is rated whatever it is. What are we rated? [00:05:29] Speaker B: Are we rated rvg? [00:05:32] Speaker A: No, probably not. Pg, pg. All those ratings have really escalated anyways. [00:05:36] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, PG, PG 13. [00:05:39] Speaker A: There you go. [00:05:39] Speaker B: I feel like we're rated 26 out of 26. We get a little weird. [00:05:44] Speaker A: Yeah, we are. I think we're safe for work. So let's hear the story. I'm excited. [00:05:48] Speaker B: So, yeah, I was waiting tables back then and some one of big group of people came in and they were all sitting down, having a good time. I think it was like an after church crowd or something. And one specific guy, not sure he could read particularly well because he ordered scrimp, Scrampy and Penis Colossus, which I gathered was a pina colada. And that's what I gave him. And he seemed happy, so that was fun. But that just sticks in my mind forever. Any time I see a pina colada. [00:06:19] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:06:20] Speaker B: Half of my brain is like, that's a penis colossus. [00:06:23] Speaker A: We'll take two. [00:06:24] Speaker B: Yeah, I know, right? [00:06:25] Speaker A: Yeah. For happy hour. No, that's. That's great. There's. I'm sure you have more with your experience, especially in Savannah. Yeah, we have a fun, diverse service industry, for sure. No, no doubt. Okay. And so, you know, came down here, make some money in the restaurant business, made a name for yourself and. And then, you know, playing live music. So you probably played all over the place. [00:06:50] Speaker B: I have definitely all. All over this area and, you know, spread out a little bit. There was like, used to be this thing called the Chicken Wing Tour where you would go to Wild Wings after Wild Wings, and you just kind of move around playing at all the Wild Wings. So we did that for a little bit. I played probably every restaurant in this town that you could play at, every bar in this town that you could play at. And it's been Awesome. I just. I get to do what I love to do. I get to play music, I get to have fun doing it. I get to meet great people. I get to cultivate an enjoyable experience for everybody. Well, hopefully everybody that comes to see me. You know, there might be a one off here or there that doesn't enjoy it, but it's just, it's a real gift to be able to do something that you love every day. [00:07:34] Speaker A: It comes across when you play. I mean, it's not like you're just playing there to, you know, like you're having fun. There's no doubt about it. Even if it's like your fifth day in a row playing, you know, you just. You've got a passion for entertaining and that's it. And so now, as our director of entertainment, you know, it's really expanded to outside of just being focused on. On music. But, you know, we talk about something called Lava, which is lighting, audio, video, ambiance, and all of that ties together into the experience that we just want people think of us, that it's a place that they're gonna have a good time. Lee's saying, shit, yeah. And it's a great experience. And the live music is so a big part of that. But yeah, you know, maybe kind of, kind of just from your experience. It's been a few months now. What has been, you know, the biggest eye opener or just things, you know, now you're focused on solving the problems and not just playing, right? [00:08:27] Speaker B: I guess there are a few. But in my mind, as far as, like, relating to musicians, it's interesting to see the mentality that some people have because some people are there and their ego gets in the way and they don't want to entertain people and they, even though that's what they're there for, they think that they're above playing certain songs. And I myself was like that for the longest time. But then you look at it from the other perspective, really, you're getting to play music and sit down and play guitar for a living. You should be able to play whatever these people want to hear. At the end of the day, you're getting paid to entertain people. So I think there's a lot of that and just kind of. It's been a real, real teaching, trying to be a teaching moment for a lot of people that I've been close with for a long time. Like, you can. You can do this in a more professional way than you're doing. And I think that's a lot of the positive feedback that I'M getting from the musicians in town is because of that exact thing. Like, I feel like I'm having a good. In a good influence on not only their mentality, but hopefully also the venues that they're playing at. And, you know, it's just really important to me that this town has a great music scene and that it has light shined upon it in a way where you recognize that. And every day, we have live music going, not just at our location, but all over town. And that's something that I think people come to town and they don't know about. [00:09:58] Speaker A: Right. [00:09:58] Speaker B: And there needs to be more of a voice for that. [00:10:02] Speaker A: Well, you know, and there's also a void now because Savannah Connect, I think, has pulled out of their printed publication. Right. [00:10:07] Speaker B: Yes, absolutely. [00:10:08] Speaker A: Right. And so they were. You know, it was. There was due Savannah for a while. I'm not sure if they're still around. Yeah, right there. But it seems like, you know, print publication is, you know, one of those things that for live music, people like to go there for it. It's tough to search it. There are some different groups. You know, there's Savannah Made Simple. Brett's doing amazing things there. [00:10:29] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:10:30] Speaker A: He's, you know, he's a musician himself. We spent a lot of time, probably get him on the podcast, talk about what he's doing and what his vision would be. Great. There's Savannah Music collective, Savannah Jams. There are these places. And I think what we talked about is how do we bring all of us together. [00:10:46] Speaker B: Absolutely. [00:10:46] Speaker A: And then say, let's create it. Like, what are the problems? What's the vision? And then, you know, there's a business opportunity in it as well. And so that's kind of a side thing that we've got going that I'm really excited about. To really make it easier for anybody who wants to have live music, it'd be a party at your house. It could be ongoing business that's being scheduled, but make it easier for the vendor that wants to have it, that person who wants the live music or the musician, and then really just try to pair it up with that. So some really fun ideas coming there. Let's kind of go down our big three questions. So what sucks about the restaurant business? And possibly the music. [00:11:31] Speaker B: Possibly the music business. You know what? It's funny. I knew you were gonna ask me that question, so I looked up answers to both of those things, and they're parallels to both of them, for sure. The things that suck about the restaurant business are things that I hear people talk about on your podcast all the time, the hours. You know, sometimes you're not always seeing eye to eye with everybody, and you're with them so often that it becomes a problem. But that's also where you make some close friends in life and what gets you through to really whatever your next thing is in life that you're gonna do. That's beautiful. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Yeah. And the music business is the same thing. You know, you go into so many situations where you don't know what to expect. You're walking into a new venue, and if you're playing with your buddies, at least you have somebody to back you up. You got that camaraderie there. I think camaraderie is one of the things that. That really makes the world go round because it gives you the confidence to get through to whatever it is that you need to do and bring the best out in yourself. [00:12:33] Speaker A: Certainly. [00:12:35] Speaker B: I was gonna say, when they don't play, it's tricky. Oh, man. Tyler, you. How many of your friends did you send up that night? Asking me to play? It's tricky. I have yet to learn that song, but I will someday. Just for you, bud. Thank you. [00:12:49] Speaker A: No. So that's really good stuff. Clearly, you love the music business, and the restaurants have given you a venue. Yeah, restaurants and bars. To be able to do that because it just. It ties so well together. So, you know. You know, I think you're. There's some warm and fuzzy in you in regards to it, but, you know. So what do you love about it? [00:13:08] Speaker B: What do I love about the restaurant business? Again, the camaraderie. I love the food. Look at me. I love the food. Especially here. Quality are in my refrigerator right now, and I put them on everything. It's just amazing. You get to experience so many different things in the restaurant business, and you get to meet so many people, especially in this job. I'm talking to people every day that I would never have talked to as just a musician. That's awesome. And it really just opens your eyes to so many different things in life that you weren't really maybe even ready for. [00:13:44] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. You know, I find, you know, the problem. Solving a lot of the problems is bringing people closer together. Right. It's like, that's, you know, when there's problems, like, let's get together and solve it. And I feel like the world has just, like, is separating everybody. It's like. It's like there's isolation happening, and you go down that road, and isolation is definitely a bad thing. You know, we saw with COVID I think you're going to see it with AI is just you're not. You're not relying on people anymore. You're relying on the robots and the agents. It's a very weird world. You're going to hear us talk a lot about AI and things that we're doing in the company to grow it. I positioned ourselves as we want to be the number one AI focused restaurant business that is leveraging everything to maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of our people. It's going to affect what you do, certainly. And so it's just an ever changing world. In the end though, people just want to have great experiences and they don't want to work harder than they have to. I think everybody is happy to work hard at the level that they need to. Right. To be able to do it. But I saw with live music, I was like, there's no way we can scale this without getting someone who's dedicated and passionate and loves the business they can see through. I think life is so important to be able to see the world through other people's eyes. I can only do so much having not been a musician. But you have that and that's really, really good. Let's see, what do you think needs to change? [00:15:18] Speaker B: If I could just say one thing before that. I think a lot of the stuff that people who are not musicians that were in your position where they have to book live music, I think a lot of those things are the things that I enjoy about it because I get to give back to people that I've been friends with for a long time and I get to offer them a way to not only have a great night, not only make money, not only build relationships with people that they've never met before, but with the way that we're planning on expanding this company, like there's a future for everybody, especially the musicians. Like if we can have what I was talking about with the Chicken Wing tour, if we could have a Conquistador tour where people are going Zunzis to Zoonsies. Like I think there's a lot of people that are excited about that possibility and it's really passports out. Yeah. Even just like the day to day booking aspect and people canceling like it happens, stuff comes up in life, you know, and it's happened to me a million times. So I understand and I think it's easier for me to. Plus I can just go cover for them if they're like, hey man, I'm not gonna make it. I can go, you can like let me go get a banjo or something, you know? [00:16:29] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, we will clear it out really quick. If I start playing the banjo and start singing. Yeah, no, you know, I think that's really good. And even just know being able to solve those problems. I believe if you can make it easier for restaurants and bars to book. Yeah, right. And. And then, you know, they know what they're walking into. Right. Whether it's equipment. Right. All of those things. I think there will be more restaurants and bars that will want to engage live music. Right. So it creates more venues and more opportunity to get musicians to where this becomes really a. A great live music destination. Like you see in other markets where it's just. There's great live music scenes. I think it's. I think it just takes pushing over the edge and that's going to be bringing you and Brett, Savannah Jams, anybody who's passionate about live music to the table and then talk about how we can fix that. [00:17:20] Speaker B: Yeah. And there are so many people in this town. And with the passage of the Savannah Music Commission act, we're going to have a focused government board to help with these exact problems and hopefully bring some festivals and just some block parties and all sorts of just really fun hospitality and entertainment based solutions that people are gonna love in this town. So. [00:17:42] Speaker A: Shit. Yeah. [00:17:43] Speaker B: Shit. Yeah. Absolutely. [00:17:45] Speaker A: Very good, man. Just super excited for all the opportunities that are available, you know, for our business. Having you here and doing what you're doing, you know, someone dedicated to that. Right. Is just gonna only make it better. And also it's good for our team. They're making more money. It is across the board. You know, I think, I think it's. It's only good things to come. So. Yeah, man. Really don't have much else. [00:18:12] Speaker B: You know, I feel like I never asked your. I never answered your question about what we're. Did you ask me what we're doing to change it? Is that what you. [00:18:19] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. So yeah. Yeah. I think that that's a big one and you could probably talk for hours about that. The problems you've seen just with us of really trying to do it the right way. [00:18:28] Speaker B: And he's going to. Extended episode. Here we go, guys. Buckle. Four hour long episode. Yeah. I think just communication is a huge issue in every facet of every business. And if you're not doing it well, you're gonna miss opportunities everywhere. So communicating what equipment you have on site, making sure people know when they're supposed to be playing all these things, they're just the Little things in life that add up to make a good experience for everybody, to make sure we're not missing anything. And, you know, since I've been on board at Xinzies, we've put in a new speaker system at Drayton, our roster went from having about 20 musicians on it to now over 100. [00:19:10] Speaker A: Wow. [00:19:10] Speaker B: And we're becoming much more active in the community, in the music community itself. So I think just, if I could limit it to just those three things, that's really what it's all about. The communication is just so important and everything. [00:19:26] Speaker A: Well, I can tell you what sucks from the restaurant business side is, you know, I say it's death by a thousand cuts, but it's like you want to go into the live music, you want to offer it, and then, you know, if you haven't done it before, there's a learning curve associated with it. And there's problems that are happening when the sound system doesn't work, doesn't tie into your system, or there's feedback or all sorts of all the technical things that are there, and you've maybe invested money to be able to do it and it just isn't working, or somebody calls out whatever it is. It's the frontline management. Right. Hannah, of course, your fans. It's like, you know, the house music's playing and there's all these different nuances. To really put a production on it makes it really stressful for the team, you know, the management, and. And I think that's where, you know, we can fix that problem for our managers, to where it's just easier for them to do it, you know, even just an idea of, like, you know, the system we're trying to create, create a chat function in it to where it's like, if it's booked, that's where you're communicating, right. To where you've got those two ends, to where there's just a natural communication all built throughout. [00:20:31] Speaker B: It just gave me an idea right there. [00:20:33] Speaker A: There you go. So that's what happens. One plus one equals three. When you start getting together, that's where the magic happens. And so whether it's the business, the restaurants, bars, different things that we're doing, or it's just internally. I think recommendation is get together and think on things, solve problems together. [00:20:52] Speaker B: Yeah, collaboration, you know, that's the. Yes and mentality. [00:20:55] Speaker A: Right. [00:20:55] Speaker B: You know, it works for everything. It's not just. Not just acting and not just improv. Like, you take anybody's idea and even if you can't do all of it. If you can make something part of it work, expand it. Yeah. That's awesome. For sure. [00:21:09] Speaker A: Well, man, you're a huge blessing to the company. I'm so excited for you. There's way more in store than just what you've got going on because as we grow, there's always problems if we can get them out in the future. You said you love solving problems in our pre talk before we did this. And I think you gotta have a passion for that if you're in business. I say the further up you get, the bigger problems you get to solve. And you're solving a very big one for us. [00:21:35] Speaker B: The big ones are the fun ones to solve. [00:21:37] Speaker A: Yeah. Kellen Chichya. So happy to have you on board. [00:21:41] Speaker B: Me too. Yeah, Absolutely. [00:21:42] Speaker A: Now you can play sauce roulette and figure out which one you want to go with. [00:21:45] Speaker B: I'm not going with Dank because I've seen the exploding sauce. I'm going to. I'm going to get risky here and I'm going to go with. [00:21:53] Speaker A: There you go. That one's got a little leaker going on. So I'm going to give you that one. [00:21:56] Speaker B: Okay. [00:21:57] Speaker A: It looks like someone may have popped that in. Yeah. See what's happening. Hot as that is now, I think my favorite one. I've been putting it on eggs. [00:22:04] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:22:04] Speaker A: All like real. It is good on pizza. It is really, really, really good. It's kind of a sweet in the beginning and then it has the heat. Yeah. I'm gonna go with OG Shit. Yeah. Sauce. [00:22:15] Speaker B: You can't beat that one either. [00:22:17] Speaker A: You can't. Shit. [00:22:17] Speaker B: Yeah. Sauce. [00:22:18] Speaker A: I'm really good. [00:22:19] Speaker B: Also going. [00:22:20] Speaker A: There we go. Come on through. What's up, Brian? [00:22:25] Speaker B: No, Brian, you gotta drink sauce now too, man. [00:22:30] Speaker A: Pick yours. Hop in. [00:22:31] Speaker B: Yeah, you want some Hottest shit. Get it. [00:22:33] Speaker A: What sucks about it. We talked about it. Yeah. I t in the restaurant business. Good. I think it's the same as. [00:22:49] Speaker B: It. [00:22:49] Speaker A: Is hot as he will come back to us. [00:22:51] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a solid end. [00:22:54] Speaker A: Sucks everywhere else. Is that there's never anyone that really dedicatedly knows exactly what your problem is or has a good solution to do it right now. Right. First. First. Oh, my God. Look at me. First. That was a swig you didn't expect. Thank you, man. It takes a village. We got a great village. You're going with the. Yeah. [00:23:17] Speaker B: Boom. [00:23:18] Speaker A: Cheers, guys up. [00:23:20] Speaker B: Oh, I'm sorry. [00:23:22] Speaker A: Is that true? You gotta like touch it, look each other in the eyes when you're doing. [00:23:25] Speaker B: It and then hold hands for a minute afterwards. [00:23:27] Speaker A: Yeah. A little weird, but, you know, it's all good. I did it. I did it. Oh. And what's great about doing this all the time is I'm constantly doing quality control. [00:23:39] Speaker B: It's fire. [00:23:40] Speaker A: That's good. 10 out of 10. Happy with that. All right. Shityashop.com we now have all five sauces available. Look out for some deals for the 20 assist club here to have that. And really excited to announce this. This is a. We now have a sponsor for the Shit. Yeah. Show. We're moving on up. It is a sponsor that we are involved with. So gonna put that out there. Mainly because it's something that I realized when I opened my first restaurant in 2007, that you get a health inspection. You get your CO. You've gotta put these different things up. And then in the mail you get another one and you get another one and another one. And before you know it, you have a wall full of frames that you bought out Office Depot and then you went to Staples and now like, they go Office Depot. Maybe out of business or Office Max is out of business, right? I don't know. But the frames don't match. You ended up spending $300 on frames. It looks like crap. You got holes in the wall. You try to swap them out. When the new ones come in, right? There's little things on the back. They break off, right? Then you get more holes. And it's like the managers having to do that. Sometimes you see them taped up. Go to airports. You'll see them all over. The airports are terrible at it. [00:24:53] Speaker B: How do you fix that? Chris? [00:24:55] Speaker A: Complianceboards.com. [00:24:57] Speaker B: Oh, my goodness. [00:24:58] Speaker A: And it's very hard to Google what it actually is to solve the problem. So I spent a long time and I had a lot of iterations. Actually had a scad student help me with the initial design. It was a modular board. And then our millwork guy who did a bunch of our restaurants and is still doing that as we grow. I pitched it to him and I said, hey, I can't be the kind of the muscle in regards to making it. I'm not a millwork guy. I'm busy. Would you be interested in this idea? And some of the best businesses are the ones that are really simple. So I've got an example of what it is here. There you go. There's always room for improvement. A99. Not bad. So restaurants are constantly having to update these. A manager leaves. Now your sort of change. Your serve safe has to change. You've got your health inspection that gets updated whenever they come in, right. You've got all of these different licenses. And. And so now what we can do, you know, is create custom boards that match the interior decor. Super easy. You can pop these off and then just use two sided tape and put it there. Nice and neat. Mounts really easily right here. So it's a super easy install with that. And. And when you buy it, you can buy individual boards or you can buy really a, you know, any mix of sizes in a 24x36. You can do that. And as I say, the restaurant business sucks and compliance sucks too. So that's why we're compliance board. You open this restaurant and it's all this work and all these certificates that prove, you know, tax, then all this stuff, alcohol licenses, all these different things. And it should be displayed proudly in something that represents that. And that's what we're doing with compliance boards. It also helps the managers and helps standardize. One of the most important things what I found is I go into chains all the time. Thousands of units, 7 11, I don't know how many they have been a Starbucks. Like no one's solving this problem and it is a problem and we have solved it. So hit us up if you're interested. Right. We can hook you up with a discount for it. You're probably. Hey Sam, can we create a code for the shit? Yeah. [00:27:15] Speaker B: Shop. [00:27:17] Speaker A: Okay. There you go. Sam. Sarah. That was Sarah, not Sam. But that works. Let's just go ahead and do it. We'll do 20% off, 26% off. We'll do that for now. 26% off if you just use. Yeah. @complianceboards.com and go ahead and order some there Podcast discount. Yeah. [00:27:42] Speaker B: So yeah. [00:27:43] Speaker A: Complianceboards.com. yeah. All right. [00:27:48] Speaker B: That was really cool. [00:27:49] Speaker A: Nice.