Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Shit, yeah.
[00:00:01] Speaker B: Shit, yeah. One, two, three. This is lb.
[00:00:03] Speaker C: Lb.
[00:00:04] Speaker A: Lb. Always bringing the weight.
[00:00:06] Speaker C: Oh, that's shit. Yeah, I like that.
[00:00:07] Speaker A: Yep. The heavy hitter.
[00:00:08] Speaker B: Pulling heavy. And everyone else's.
[00:00:11] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. Shit, yeah.
[00:00:12] Speaker A: Going back to when we were at five guys together.
[00:00:14] Speaker C: There you go.
[00:00:15] Speaker A: It's been a minute. Yeah, yeah. So excited to have another episode. It's been a little bit of a blast from the past of just being able to bring people in that have been such a key part of our business. Talking about. About things we've done in the past and then getting excited about what we're doing for the future. So, man, got Larry Belton here, lb, the heavy hitter. We'll go ahead and go for this, but. Yeah, so Larry and I go way back.
[00:00:41] Speaker C: We going back to five guys was 2013.
[00:00:45] Speaker A: 2013, yeah, that's right. And so now you've been up in Atlanta, right?
[00:00:50] Speaker C: Yep, yep. For the last five years. Five years, yep.
[00:00:54] Speaker A: I can't believe it's been that long.
[00:00:55] Speaker B: You did try to steal him back a couple times.
[00:00:57] Speaker C: There was times that we were talking.
[00:01:00] Speaker B: He just got.
[00:01:01] Speaker C: I asked Chris to be my mentor. He said, no, I'm just joking.
[00:01:04] Speaker A: That's not now.
[00:01:05] Speaker B: So what I do say is you definitely didn't ask. Cause he would have said yes.
[00:01:08] Speaker C: No, I'm just joking. No. Chris has always been a resource, you know, and the reason I kept coming back to Zunzies was mainly because of Chris, you know, and to. You know, I actually wanted to be a lawyer when I went to school.
[00:01:22] Speaker A: Me too. That was my first intent.
[00:01:24] Speaker C: And the rest. Restaurant business just steals you. But when you meet great people, you know. You know what I mean? And to look up to your boss is one thing that's just special. You know what I mean? And I really appreciate it.
[00:01:37] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, it's exciting to be on the show. So episode five of the Shit yeah Show, we got Dahlia, my co host, she missed the last one. Doing great things. I think you're in Hilton Head doing some marketing there or something.
[00:01:48] Speaker B: I sure was.
[00:01:49] Speaker A: There you go.
[00:01:50] Speaker B: Some boots on the ground. Work over.
[00:01:52] Speaker A: Boots on the ground. The Hilton Head lsm, local store marketing. Getting that ready. Really getting geared up for the peak season over there. And yeah. So just to reiterate what we talk about on the Shit. Yeah show number one, the restaurant business sucks. We're here to change it. So we're gonna talk about what sucks about the restaurant business. What we probably, you know, the goal is to stick around 26 minutes. We've worked together for a long Time. So there's a lot of suck. One of the stories. You saved me from a knife fight at York street, so that's a good one. We have a lot of stories. So there's that one. We're talking about what you love about the restaurant business. What makes you say shit? Yeah, right.
And then what you're doing to change the restaurant business. What you think we're doing. Just really what Moving forward, where you see the restaurant business going. But I always like to start off and go with, how do you get in the restaurant business? Let's go and start with that. And then, Dalia, you keep us on track and then always add the spice and everything nice to the conversation.
[00:02:46] Speaker C: All right.
[00:02:46] Speaker A: Powerpuff Girl. She cut me off when I. Are you Bubbles?
[00:02:49] Speaker C: Which one are you?
[00:02:50] Speaker B: Bubbles number four. Got you.
[00:02:52] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:02:52] Speaker B: What'd you say, Larry?
[00:02:55] Speaker C: I was trying to figure out which Powerpuff Girl you were.
[00:02:58] Speaker B: But, you know, when he mixes the whole thing.
[00:03:01] Speaker C: So are there different personalities in the beginning?
[00:03:03] Speaker B: And he's doing the. It's. I'm the soup.
[00:03:06] Speaker C: Oh, you're a chemical ex? Is that what you're saying? Yes.
[00:03:10] Speaker A: I have no idea what you're talking about. Oh, man.
[00:03:13] Speaker C: So how I got into the rest of my business.
[00:03:17] Speaker A: Let's go back to day one.
[00:03:18] Speaker C: We always. We worked hard.
[00:03:19] Speaker A: Guaranteed the first day sucked.
[00:03:21] Speaker C: Oh, guarantee.
[00:03:22] Speaker A: Every restaurant is so weird. It's like everybody knows what's going on, and they pretend that it's awesome. And then you get in there and it's like, oh, shit, it sucks. So let's go ahead and roll.
[00:03:32] Speaker C: I mean, you. The job that I had. I mean, I worked at Chuck E. Cheese for my first job. Yeah.
[00:03:38] Speaker A: Day one, you were in the balls all the time, weren't you?
[00:03:41] Speaker C: I was. Oh, my God. I can still smell the chucky soup every now and then when I think about it.
[00:03:46] Speaker A: You know, their pizza is actually not bad.
[00:03:48] Speaker C: It's actually cheesy.
[00:03:48] Speaker A: I used to have Chuck E. Cheese all the time in Orlando. Grind.
[00:03:51] Speaker C: It's really good. Surprisingly.
[00:03:52] Speaker B: And you were in the ball pit all the time.
[00:03:56] Speaker C: Hold on. No. Hold on.
[00:03:57] Speaker A: So just swimming in the ball. That was Larry.
[00:04:01] Speaker C: All right.
[00:04:02] Speaker A: The heavy hitter lb.
[00:04:04] Speaker C: All right. We're not hitting balls here, though. But.
[00:04:06] Speaker A: So your first job was working at Chuck E. Cheese?
[00:04:08] Speaker C: Working at Chuck E. Cheese in the Chuck E. Costume that smelled like balls. Just to clarify everything. You know what I mean? Cause it gets so hot. Did you lose the best?
[00:04:16] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:04:17] Speaker C: No. I mean, I don't know if it was a punishment that they did or hazing for their first time people. But I didn't even know the dance or anything. And I just got in the. There's a full dance. Oh, yeah.
[00:04:26] Speaker B: Will you please do it before we leave?
[00:04:27] Speaker C: I will not do it on this. 20 minutes, 26 minutes.
[00:04:30] Speaker A: That way. Dance pony.
[00:04:34] Speaker C: Oh my God. It was brutal.
But yeah, Chuck E. Cheese, I've been there. I've been inside of restaurants, really ever since. I've done a couple other jobs outside it, but I just kept coming back to it and I don't even know why, because.
[00:04:47] Speaker A: Okay, so Chuck E. Cheese was the first one. How long were you there?
[00:04:50] Speaker C: I was at Chuck E. Cheese, I'm ashamed to say, about four years. It's actually my second longest job after Zunzies.
[00:04:57] Speaker A: You were clocking in early, going to the ball bed by yourself, taking naps, guaranteed.
[00:05:01] Speaker B: That is so respectful.
[00:05:03] Speaker A: Okay, so four years. That's awesome though.
[00:05:05] Speaker C: Across different cities at that too.
[00:05:07] Speaker A: So you were like, you transferred. You were Chucky.
[00:05:10] Speaker C: Yes, yes, I was Chucky.
[00:05:11] Speaker A: And you were making the cheese. The cheddar, all of it.
[00:05:13] Speaker C: I mean, what you can. The things that you can imagine at Chuck E. Cheese happened. It definitely happened. And I was doing them. So you.
[00:05:21] Speaker A: No. Okay. Not that that didn't happen, huh?
[00:05:24] Speaker C: So I started Chuck E. Cheese when I was about 17 years old, first job ever. I went in there, you know, all brown eyed and bushy tailed and thinking that this is gonna be the best thing ever, you know, Chuck E. Cheese kids. But it was a nightmare. You know, there are fights. I mean, parents are always constantly angry. You know, sometimes you go home and you're a little deaf in one ear, you know what I mean?
It's wild. Chuck E. Cheese is a wild place. I don't think I'm gonna take my kids there.
[00:05:52] Speaker A: There you go. Yeah, so I don't know where they are in their.
[00:05:55] Speaker C: I was just about to say, hopefully we don't get sued either by Chuck E's.
[00:05:58] Speaker A: It's okay, you know, hey, it's what it is. You know, it's what it is. Hopefully we don't get sued for opening up Pandora's box of how bad the restaurant business sucks.
[00:06:08] Speaker C: Right?
[00:06:09] Speaker A: But that's the purpose of this is the restaurant business engages everybody. I don't know a person that hasn't been to a restaurant, therefore they are a part of this business.
[00:06:17] Speaker C: That is so true.
[00:06:18] Speaker A: And people go to it hoping to have a great experience. No one goes to Chuck E. Cheese to have a worse day.
[00:06:23] Speaker C: But the thing is, but they end up probably Some people expect to have a worse day when they go to Chuck E. Cheese, though, I can tell you that. There are a lot of angry dads.
[00:06:31] Speaker B: I was gonna say every dad that walks through the door pissed expects to have a worse day.
[00:06:36] Speaker C: Oh, for sure, for sure. They're always with their head down on their phone or something like that.
[00:06:40] Speaker B: And that's why they have to start selling.
[00:06:42] Speaker A: Yeah, they're a little Johnny, go ahead.
[00:06:44] Speaker B: They started selling beer after that.
[00:06:46] Speaker C: Okay. Oh, exactly. That's exactly what.
[00:06:47] Speaker A: All right, so that was Chuck E. Cheese. Let's do a quick rundown of the next job.
[00:06:51] Speaker C: The next jobs were kfc then getting.
[00:06:56] Speaker A: Burned by fry oil.
[00:06:57] Speaker C: Oh, my God. It was the worst. I still have the. But the.
[00:07:01] Speaker A: Just glaze over that I still have scars. Yeah. All right.
[00:07:06] Speaker C: The one that had the biggest impact on my life, though, the one that really just made me dive into restaurants was Chipotle.
[00:07:12] Speaker A: Chipotle.
[00:07:12] Speaker C: Yeah, Chipotle.
[00:07:13] Speaker A: Chipotle. As William said, I used to go there twice a day sometimes when I was a little fuller in the face, as they said, not from a beard, but from natural injectables that they have nowadays called fat. I was a five guys franchisee. I consumed the product and then when I was full of burgers, I'd be like, let's get a Chipotle.
[00:07:32] Speaker C: Let's go get burritos in our burritos diet.
[00:07:34] Speaker A: So, yeah, so I went ahead and rocked that. And Chipotle, honestly, Chipotle has been one of the best brands out there for a long time. It has. I used to study it, you know, for their 13 characteristics of how they hired. I mean, when we bought Zunzi's originally, I was like, chipotle was the gold standard. They were every detail from the screws. They had to be up and down a certain way. Steve. Ls money, rand. They killed it.
[00:07:59] Speaker C: They did. They did.
[00:08:00] Speaker A: Now, you know, it's a crazy. I'm going to go and say it. It blows my mind. They're a $78 billion company when 80% of the time I go there, they're out of something. And it's like the standards that used to be right, they're just not there anymore. And, you know, business, the restaurant business sucks. And I don't blame anybody for it. But what it is, is, like, it is really hard to do it consistent a long, long time. And it takes extreme focus on it.
And, you know, it's part of the stakeholder model. You've got your team, your franchisees, right? And you've got your fans, your community, your vendors and investors. And it's one of those things that when a company goes public, it changes it, you know, and, you know, they've done an unbelievable thing. And I think the restaurant business too, it's all about the chapters. Right. You have chapters of it's a season you were there and you were able to become a better person. Learn about the restaurant business at Chipotle.
[00:08:56] Speaker C: It was the height of their existence. I mean, when I was there, they were opening up a new restaurant every time.
[00:09:02] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:09:02] Speaker C: So can you imagine, like, the opportunities that they were, like, pushing to everybody? There's so much growth. You can and live anywhere in the country and go work at a Chipotle.
[00:09:12] Speaker A: The details of them. So we opened to five guys in pooler, and there was a set of plans. They had thrown in a dumpster, and I dumpster dove and I took a set of their plans. And the crazy part is set of plans too. And I was like, oh, it's unbelievable.
[00:09:26] Speaker B: It's a spiral notebook.
[00:09:27] Speaker C: I believe it because Chris doesn't even know this. But in Atlanta, we're located on how Mill Road. We're right across the street from a train.
[00:09:34] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:09:34] Speaker C: And they used to tell me all the time when I go over there, hey, your boss was over here for like, three hours just staring at the.
[00:09:42] Speaker A: Let's get weird. I am dedicated. Restaurant business sucks. And honestly, the key to it is role modeling. The best. It's like when you have brands that have done it, go and study what they're doing, and there's so many takeaways that they've done, and they keep it really simple. And I love what really, if you go back to their core purpose of what it was is to change the supply chain with a burrito. Right. Food with integrity. Now it's real food.
Take it all away. They did an amazing thing with it. And so along the way, it takes a lot of great people, great systems, great training, great opportunities with it. And here's my challenge for the squat way. Bring back 13 characteristics.
[00:10:23] Speaker C: There you go.
[00:10:24] Speaker A: Go ahead. It's really hard to find great people that had it, but they were so disciplined with it.
[00:10:29] Speaker C: They were.
[00:10:30] Speaker A: And I think to get back on track and do it, you know, there's no doubt that people are the greatest asset. So I'm still going to Chipotle and I'm studying it. It's a little different, you know, with it, but going back to also, one of my great mentors that I've just read his books is Danny Meyer. Is every time you go into a restaurant, don't focus on the negative. Every restaurant is doing something great or else they wouldn't be in business.
[00:10:55] Speaker C: That's true.
[00:10:56] Speaker A: Right. They're focusing on something and trying to do that well, figure out what that diamond is. And so even if they're struggling now, we're struggling. Every business has problems, but they're probably doing something great that you can take away. And it's always easy to poke and pick something out, but to find what's great in somebody or something is really important. That's Chipotle. And I think that's really, you know, we really connected on that as we were at five guys open next to a Chipotle. We talked about it a million times. You worked with William there, you know, did some great things there. Okay. So there's that. And then five guys, you were the gm.
[00:11:28] Speaker C: There you go. Right.
[00:11:29] Speaker A: So I think it was William who connected us.
[00:11:31] Speaker C: It was.
[00:11:31] Speaker A: Right, Because William came on board and then brought. You were a GM at five guys.
[00:11:36] Speaker C: Yep, yep. And then came to Dorcy to Chipotle.
[00:11:39] Speaker A: Yeah. Then came to Zunzi's. And so you were at York Street. So OG and that's where the knife fight happened. Right. So that was one of my sucks. It was almost being stabbed.
[00:11:49] Speaker B: That seems valid.
[00:11:51] Speaker A: Really bad. Big, big dude.
[00:11:52] Speaker C: York street was a very magical place, you know what I mean? Where liter anything could happen on any given day.
[00:11:58] Speaker A: It was. It was.
[00:12:00] Speaker C: Thank God we were closed on Sundays. Then you're.
[00:12:03] Speaker A: Yes, we will come back closed on Sundays again. It is my goal for 20, 31st time putting it out there publicly. We will get there at some point, but reason being, we all need a day of rest. So York street, your best memory of York street before we keep rolling. There's a lot of stuff going on.
[00:12:19] Speaker C: Oh, my God. The best memory of York Street.
Like the funniest memory or the best memory.
Well, this is when Chris was a little younger and, you know, he had a little more fire under him.
[00:12:33] Speaker A: Oh, I got fire, baby. It's just a little different.
[00:12:35] Speaker C: So Chris. Chris. I guess one of my favorite things on York street was that.
Wow, this is such a hard question. There's so many memories. So many memories.
[00:12:47] Speaker A: It's the most fun I've ever had at a restaurant.
[00:12:49] Speaker B: I know which one you want to say.
[00:12:54] Speaker C: Wow.
I guess it would be the first time we ever did catering.
[00:13:03] Speaker A: Catering. So for those who don't know, catering is one of the hardest things in the restaurant business. It's super lucrative, but it is you're delivering a promise. It's like ups. There's people waiting and it's a lot of time. It's the first time somebody is trying your product and so you're bringing that. You're trying to bring the experience. And it is a logistics company for sure, especially when you're going high volume. So go ahead.
[00:13:26] Speaker C: And our first time customer was very challenging in almost every way.
First off, they ordered something that really wasn't even on our menu. You know what I mean? It's the first customer. So we were just like, let's do it. Yeah.
[00:13:38] Speaker A: So as you're creating something, you see what they want to order, you create it. Right. That's actually how the shit. Yes. Sauce was created by Gabby Conquistador was a customer who asked for a chicken sandwich.
[00:13:47] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:13:48] Speaker A: That it came to be. There you go.
[00:13:48] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:13:49] Speaker A: And that was it.
[00:13:50] Speaker C: And then, I mean, the second thing was where they wanted it delivered. It was all the way in South Carolina. You know what I mean? So I didn't even know it was nowhere near the restaurant. So not only did I have to make a catering that was not on our menu, but I also had to deliver it 25 miles down the road. So very, very. It turned out great. You know, the team was really excited about it. But to be completely honest, it was so funny just because we were just. We were all a part of it and we just basically put a bunch of shit together. You know what I mean? And I think that's how the Oliver's lunch buffet.
[00:14:25] Speaker A: So let's talk about that. So you put a bunch of shit together and the key is to take in a bunch of shit and making it shit. Yeah. It's really the way you sell it.
[00:14:31] Speaker C: Right.
[00:14:32] Speaker A: Sales is a transfer of energy. And so I think that's one of the. I'd say one of your greatest assets is just you have that fire that, you know, you're able to turn that on.
[00:14:41] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:14:41] Speaker A: And just. You are a walking shit. Yeah. Experience.
You know, which is. Which is pretty awesome.
[00:14:49] Speaker C: Dating profile.
[00:14:50] Speaker A: There you go. Like, I knew lb, the heavy talk guys.
So. So, you know, that's it. So what's to finish off this suck? Because we're kind of running around like I normally do. So what's the one thing you say, out of all things in the restaurant business, what's the number one thing that sucks about the restaurant business?
[00:15:08] Speaker C: The number one thing that sucks is when, I guess when people are in leadership or in the corporate office, when they forget about why they're there, you Know what I mean? Or why they don't have to work weekends or why. You know what I mean? Because I'm a huge. I'm very big on people culture. And, I mean, it's all about the team. And that's one of the things I love about our company. But I feel like in leadership, your only job is to prepare, give the people in the restaurant who are busting their ass for eight, nine hours in.
[00:15:43] Speaker A: One spot, five times, doubles, way more.
[00:15:46] Speaker C: You know what I mean? And if they don't have the tools that they need to even do the job that they're being asked to do at a very high level, sometimes at a very fast pace, and then our standards are. I mean, it's perfection. You know what I mean? Every time that we're trying to aim for. So, like, when we forget about the people that are in the trenches, I think that's what sucks the most, because it sucks for those guys. And then it creates a disconnect between us. And when I say us, I mean, just because I'm a corporate manager, but it creates a disconnect between corporate and what's going on in the locations. And. And I feel like that's where the drama and battles begin. And once you lose that connection with the team, I mean, it's almost impossible to get back.
[00:16:33] Speaker A: So Kevin says it all the time. Kevin's my partner, chief operating officer. We're an operations company. Right. Everything is to serve operations. That is the bread and butter. We can focus on marketing, focus on these things. Right. But we're here to serve the team.
[00:16:48] Speaker C: Right?
[00:16:48] Speaker A: And it's so easy to get caught up. And that's why it's important. That's why we have the show, is to constantly bang the drum. First off, the restaurant business sucks.
[00:16:57] Speaker C: It does.
[00:16:57] Speaker A: Let's not talk about what shit. Yeah. Is right. Because there's great things about it. But let's start with what sucks and keep communicating that, because it doesn't suck for the facility, it sucks for people. The six stakeholders are all people.
[00:17:10] Speaker C: Yeah. Right. And I'm not. There's no shot at the people who work in the corporate offices or anything like that. We get busy. There's tons of emails, tons of, like. There's just thousands of things that are going on on the back end. You know what I mean?
[00:17:25] Speaker B: So bad.
[00:17:25] Speaker C: Yeah. But it can't take precedent over one, doesn't take precedent over the other. We all got to work together, and we all got to know what the mission and the goal is and try to achieve that.
[00:17:35] Speaker A: Together and that's it. And so for us, when our team to say shit. Yeah. First we know if our team is saying it, then it rolls up from there.
[00:17:42] Speaker C: Exactly.
[00:17:42] Speaker A: Yeah. It's all about the people. That's why there's a rainbow umbrella. Represent your life. Eight areas of your life. The more full your umbrella is, the more people you can fit under it. Impact. So really good stuff. A little bit more light and airy. No knife fights or anything like that on your side.
[00:17:58] Speaker C: Come a long way.
[00:17:59] Speaker A: That was a little depressing there for a second. I almost died. And speaking of.
[00:18:04] Speaker B: Are we going to talk about the knife fight?
[00:18:06] Speaker A: We're not going to. It was like a. That was an intense moment for me.
[00:18:09] Speaker C: It was so bad. It happened so fast. It was like a big knife.
[00:18:12] Speaker A: It was on stairs.
[00:18:13] Speaker C: Yeah, it was.
[00:18:13] Speaker A: Yeah, it was. It was good.
[00:18:15] Speaker B: Because from. I mean, the viewers, they've heard about the knife fight.
[00:18:19] Speaker A: At this point, you could go ahead.
[00:18:21] Speaker C: Maybe the part two. And we're gonna leave maybe part two to.
[00:18:23] Speaker A: Yeah, so maybe part two.
[00:18:25] Speaker C: Definitely.
[00:18:25] Speaker A: Larry's gonna get back on.
[00:18:27] Speaker B: Keep an eye on it.
[00:18:28] Speaker A: We got that. So what do you love about the restaurant business? Because you're in it, you know, your journey, you've gone in and out of it, you've done different things. Right now you're, you know, you've been in Atlanta doing an amazing job keeping the Atlanta location going, improving. We're really excited to double down on the Atlanta market. My goal is to get a location. Another Zunzi's in Atlanta. Gonna be a huge part of that with it. Our next podcast, we're gonna have the dank dealer, Tico, and he's gonna be a big part of.
There you go. He's doing fun stuff up there to create awareness, really, to make some waves up in that big city up there.
[00:19:03] Speaker C: Right.
[00:19:03] Speaker A: But you've been doing great things up there. Where the highest rated restaurant in Howell Mill. Over 1500 reviews, 4.8 rating.
[00:19:09] Speaker C: Chick Fil A is across the street, by the way.
[00:19:11] Speaker A: There you go.
[00:19:11] Speaker C: Did I say that?
[00:19:12] Speaker A: Hey, Chick Fil A is doing amazing things. But their sauce won't make you say shit. Yeah, so that's right.
[00:19:19] Speaker C: So what I love about the restaurant industry, it's the same thing that what sucks about the restaurant industry is the people. It's the people.
I mean, you can. You're more than. When you're a restaurant manager, you're more than just a restaurant manager. Sometimes you're a friend, sometimes you're a psychologist. Sometimes you're, you know, you know, there's so many different hats that you wear, and you get to see people grow like another, you know, anything, any other thing. I mean, right before your eyes, I've seen. Right before my eyes, I've seen people come in where you will be like, why did you give that person a job to running their own locations.
[00:19:59] Speaker A: Right.
[00:19:59] Speaker C: You know what I mean? And just. And how they transform and what I think sucks a lot is people. There's.
People feel sometimes like working for restaurants is almost like degrading, or it's the lower. You know, the Lord's here.
[00:20:16] Speaker A: We've talked about that in the past. There's called a stigma. Whatever it is. It's just. Oh, it's like, oh, you work in the restaurant business? And it's like, no, we're. What we're doing is we're restaurant professionals.
[00:20:27] Speaker C: Absolutely.
[00:20:28] Speaker A: We're bringing in amazing talent. We're a tech company with how we do things. We're an HR machine, developing our people, trying to help them become the best version of themselves to where whatever that next chapter is, you know, we're able to do that. But, you know, that's. For me, that's the biggest upside of this is really what you're dealing with in this business. You're dealing with high risk, human talent. Right. So it's human capital, which is what you're doing, and you're making an investment in people that could kind of go boom. And that's what I saw at Five Guys. And that's why I really doubled down and decided to buy Zunzies from the founders and say, align it with my life purpose, you know? And then I found the most value when I had the Five Guys locations was when I saw people drink the Kool Aid. And they just latched onto what we were doing. And I saw them start off as, you know, let's just say a fry cook. Right. They came in as a fry cook, and two years later, they're a gm. I know they're buying a house and getting married and having kids, and, like, their life is transformed. No degree, no. But they were able to find their spot in the world and do it. It's because of that business, the upward mobility that's there. And so that's the biggest thing, I think, for us when the company's growing, it's because our people are growing. And I think to kind of go from a cultural standpoint, we always ask this every day. And with our team number that I'm engaging with a lot more now is just asking what's your number one to ten?
[00:21:51] Speaker C: Well, right now. Right now I'm about a eight. I'm feeling great. It's a great day outside. My life is great. My job is great. I feel good in what I'm doing in my career right now.
Like, I feel really good.
[00:22:03] Speaker A: Nice. So I think that the key to that is there's a couple things. People need different things in life, but one is growth.
[00:22:09] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:22:09] Speaker A: And so I think if we were stagnant and we didn't have exciting things going on.
[00:22:12] Speaker C: Right.
[00:22:13] Speaker A: Super excited to announce. You know, with that growth, we just signed Orlando for 10 stores.
[00:22:16] Speaker C: Shit. Yeah.
[00:22:17] Speaker A: Right? So Orlando franchise. 10 locations just closed today on that. So gross.
[00:22:22] Speaker C: We're crushing it.
[00:22:23] Speaker A: You spend time in Orlando, Right? So what does that mean? It means there's gonna be more travel, just more fun things. You know, you've been a key part of our training, project manager for 26X, which is our way to really grow our business by being the best steward of the two most important relationships God gives us, our team and our fans. And you've just done a great job with that. So, you know, obviously, you know, the main reason you're here is because we align so much at the highest level of really being people focused, which is great.
[00:22:52] Speaker B: And so, Larry, with this Orlando deal, we are going to send you to Disney World. We have a Disney World store. You're fully in charge of it. You have to be Mickey because of your past. Chuck E. Cheese.
[00:23:03] Speaker A: We should do a Mickey versus Chucky. Right?
I think William. William McF would be a great. A great mouse to go with that one.
[00:23:13] Speaker C: We're just tossing sauce and squirting sauce at each other.
[00:23:18] Speaker A: That would be pretty good. Is there two heroes fighting to the death? Right?
[00:23:22] Speaker B: My two heroes, Mickey and Mickey and Chuck E. Cheese.
[00:23:25] Speaker A: That would be good. Okay.
[00:23:25] Speaker C: Oh, my God.
[00:23:26] Speaker B: Sorry. Didn't mean.
[00:23:27] Speaker A: That is not true. We aren't in Disney yet. But, hey, speak it into existence. That's good stuff. We love making little kids say shit.
[00:23:35] Speaker C: Yeah, Chris did it yesterday.
[00:23:38] Speaker B: I said we weren't gonna bring this.
[00:23:40] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm sorry, but I couldn't help myself if that's the worst thing that's happening. All right, so then let's just keep on rolling. Keep us on track. Dahlia, you're kind of like, she's playing too much. I've been trying some lunch lights.
All right, so what are we doing? What do you think we're doing? You know, kind of personally. But what do. What do you think we're doing? That's different to make the restaurant business better.
[00:24:03] Speaker C: Oh, well, you said it. It's being good stewards to our fans and being good stewards to our people. You know what I mean? And we cannot expect for our people to go out and make people other create fans and make guests say shit. Yeah. If we're not making them say shit. Yeah. And I think that with our brand and our company that our hyper focus on making our team say shit. Yeah. I mean, first off, he said it a couple times during here. He literally touched the CEO and co founder of the company, literally text the team and they get so excited. And the funny thing is, Gary, back in Atlanta, he didn't respond to me. So I literally said, yo, if you say, what's up, Chris? You may just win real fast. You know what I mean?
[00:24:50] Speaker A: Really?
[00:24:51] Speaker C: Two seconds later he sent a text. I didn't even know he sent a text. And everybody comes running out of the restaurant. Cause we were standing in the back talking. They like, Gary, you just won. That's not fair or whatever. It's just. But it's, it's so amazing, you know? Cause at the end of the day we're making sandwiches with sauce on them. And it's so amazing how people can get so excited and so bought in to what we're doing. And it's only because that we are trying our best to make them say shit. Shit.
[00:25:18] Speaker A: So let's talk about it. You know, we've now been doing 26x, right. And what that is is just us being 26x focused on being a good steward of the fans and the team we already have. Right? Right. We're not going to get more. We can't grow our sales without focused on them. And we can't. And as sales grow, we have to hire more people. Right. And then we'd be a good steward of that. And it's just focused on that every single day. But one of the amazing results that we've gotten is we were very big on reviews. We've actually, in the past two quarters, our focus has been let's focus on reviews. And so, you know, in this day and age, I think everybody goes when they look at a restaurant, hey, what's the score on Google? Whatever it is. And you know, at five guys, they had mystery shops twice a week. And it was a huge, a huge metric of that business for us. But we've really like 26x our focus on reviews in the past period. 11. I was talking to Kevin this morning about it.
[00:26:11] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:26:12] Speaker A: So in the first nine months we had 980 reviews for all locations. 4.7 rating. 980. 4.7 above industry standard. Nothing to bat an eye at. We're, like, doing really, really good. Exactly what the world would say is outstanding in the restaurant business. Right?
We last period, period. 11, four weeks, 680 reviews.
Only 12 weren't five stars.
[00:26:39] Speaker C: Oh, really?
[00:26:39] Speaker A: 4.999 rating.
[00:26:41] Speaker C: That's crazy.
[00:26:41] Speaker A: Five across all four locations.
[00:26:43] Speaker C: That's insane.
[00:26:44] Speaker A: Right? And so it's. It's focus. And so there was a. There was a quote that I put out in the 26X club, my Texas club, with the team, and it was from Bruce Lee. And it was. It was like, I'm going to butcher it. Sorry, Bruce Lee. But it's basically.
Shoot. It's basically a warrior. Right? Is just an average man who has extreme focus.
[00:27:08] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:27:10] Speaker A: Right?
[00:27:10] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:27:11] Speaker A: In general, we're all average people. Nobody's special. Right. And my job is to do what? Let's make everybody really, really, really focused for us. We want our team to say shit. Yeah. Then we want our fans to say it. Right? It's pretty, pretty simple. It's people serving people and what shit yeah. Is. And it's why we're doing this show. It's why you're here. It's why it's on your hat. It's on my back, it's on our cars. It's why we say it. It's focus. It's focus. Right? We can constantly say it, and so it's really such a powerful thing. And, man, you've been making me say shit yeah. For years now, even when I didn't have zunzies. I think we're probably saying shit yeah. Just because you were having fun and doing it. But, man, it is such a blessing to have you here.
So excited for, you know, what you've done in your career. But the best is yet to come. We put you in one of the most important positions of the company. Certainly for me, project manager at 26X. Being a good steward of God's two most important gifts, our team. Right. And our fans. And, man, you're doing it every day. And there's no doubt that we're going to grow our business. And you're a huge part of it, man.
[00:28:13] Speaker C: Shit, yeah. Chris. That's what's up, man. Thank you so much, man.
[00:28:16] Speaker A: Yeah. Shit, yeah. So let's go.
[00:28:18] Speaker C: We'll take shots. No, you gotta do it.
[00:28:22] Speaker A: We'll save the dank for later. There we go.
What's good about this is we're gonna always be able to sample our sauce as we do. Cause we small batch our sauce because I'm paranoid about big batches going sideways. Right. Been there, done that.
So.
[00:28:39] Speaker B: I have so much sauce in my refrigerator now, just with one gulp taken out of it.
[00:28:45] Speaker A: There's green on the top.
[00:28:47] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I'm trying to use it all.
[00:28:50] Speaker A: There we go. It's got like a fat cap on top.
[00:28:52] Speaker C: I know.
[00:28:54] Speaker A: All right, let's go ahead and do it. All right.
[00:28:56] Speaker C: Cheers, guys.
[00:28:57] Speaker A: Shit, yeah.
[00:28:58] Speaker C: Shit, yeah.
[00:29:01] Speaker B: Oh, no. Okay.
[00:29:05] Speaker C: All right.
[00:29:05] Speaker A: That shit yeah. Sauce, baby.
[00:29:06] Speaker C: Yes, it is.
[00:29:07] Speaker A: Woo.
All right, this one. That's a wrap.
[00:29:11] Speaker B: We can work on this faster.
[00:29:13] Speaker C: You have to swallow it, Delia.
I know you guys actually drink.
[00:29:17] Speaker A: Here we go.
