REEF Chief Creative Officer Alan Philips: The Power of Proximity

Speaker A: Welcome back to another episode of Authentic Influence. I'm your host, Adam Conner. Today, a deep dive into how to connect the world to your block. I'll get to that in a second. If you're new here, welcome. My name's Adam. It's good to have you. This is a show which talks to some of the biggest and also most interesting brands in the world on the topic of mobilizing masses to become more authentic. And we do so through the lens of their leaders.

Speaker B: And.

Speaker A: And today I'm on with a company called Reef and their chief Creative officer, Alan Phillips. This is a company that is doing something pretty interesting, especially right now. Basically what they did was to acquire a bunch of parking garages and turn them into modular and unique neighborhoods to completely redefine the experience of what is on our block. It's a revolution and an innovation that I frankly had really never heard of before. And so took the opportunity to talk to Alan not only about what it is, but also what are some of the ways in which it has manifested. And so we talk about applications in healthcare and in restaurants and in entrepreneurship. And we also talk about the power of media, specifically that idea that every company is a media company. First, we learn how REEF leans into it and tells the story through the individuals who benefit and are, uh, impacted by what REEF does first. And in a similar modular nature, how they attempt to do that in. In building up verticals and growing outward from there. That, of course, plus advice as to how to become more authentic in the definition of that word, as Alan puts it. So I hope that you sit back and just learn from this one. This is a pretty unique company, and I think they're doing a lot of things right. So enjoy this episode for today with from reef, Alan Phillips. All right, everybody, welcome back to the show. I am here with Alan Phillips from. From reef. Alan, thanks so much for joining. How are you doing?

Speaker B: Good, man. Good man. It's great to be here.

Speaker A: It's good to talk to you because, uh, this is a concept that I have really never heard before, what REEF is doing and bringing to the market. I've heard, uh, done a couple of ways harnessing the power of proximity and connecting the world to your block, reinventing what a neighborhood looks like. I mean, as far as I know, that's just a collection of houses, but you all have a much broader description of that word. So can we level set right, right at this, at the front here? What is reef? Can you help me with that?

Speaker B: Well, reef, uh, transforms underutilized real estate into Dynamic hubs of activity that offer diverse solutions to serve the needs of an ever changing urban population. So that could be goods, services, mobility and logistics hubs. Um, we really curate a selection of goods and services and experiences, um, by transforming underutilized urban real estate, mainly parking lots, into these neighborhood hubs. So if you can imagine, you know, a parking lot sits half empty most of the time. If you're able to take it from a single use to multi use, sort of like an app store where each spot can have a different use. You can have kitchens, you could have distribution and logistics, you could have urban farms, you can have, uh, you know, the next generation of grocery and convenience stores. There's a tremendous amount of opportunity to maximize value, maximize benefit to the community. Like, you know, we're doing COVID testing and health care. Um, and that's because we offer proximity. We have a, uh, network of over 5,000 locations, um, in the United States and Canada. We can reach 70% of the North American urban population. And we can do that faster than anyone else because a warehouse is outside the city. But our locations are right in the center of the city. And we have more of them than many of, you know, the largest brands in the world. Like if you look at, you know, the density of a specific, uh, you know, fast food brand or Starbucks in, you know, a city like San Francisco, we have more density of locations than they have in that, in those markets. So that gives us a tremendous access to the consumer that we can provide to companies, governments, anyone in need.

Speaker A: That's pretty impressive to have that as an asset to rely upon. I don't think there are too many people. In fact, I don't think anybody can say that they have a denser sort of fleet or network of locations, uh, in an area as populous as something like the bay, uh, as you. So that is particularly interesting and done in a rather ingenious way, I might add, via, uh, basically taking parking garages, which is something that a lot of folks have thought about the same way forever. That's where I just put my car. You guys actually think a lot more than that. And right now, with regard to keeping things close to home, I'll go to that power of proximity. I saw there was a trademarked phrase on the reef site. Now, is that something that you were all thinking about, uh, as heavily prior to this pandemic and its context or, uh, not. Obviously it's going to have accelerated the way in which you've grown, But I'm interested to know what this has done. I'm guessing it just lit a fire under what you provide.

Speaker B: We had a vision of something that was maybe going to take five to ten years. Um, and when I say we, I mean uh, the founder, uh, Ario Halvo and the rest of the founding team and the people are here. You know, much, much before I was, um, had this vision, um, to transform these, these hubs. And they thought it would take time. Um, and basically what Covid did was what we would call accelerate positive change. It basically took something that would have happened in five to 10 years and made it five to 10 weeks. And you know, for instance, you're in the, you know, delivery only food business. Um, I couldn't imagine any circumstance that would be more advantageous to be in that business than now.

Speaker A: Having something speed up by a factor of 50x is, is crazy to me. And um, surely some uh, you know, a period of growth which was probably difficult to harness at first, but it's that growth which again and that acceleration which has me curious about a couple things which I'll ask about in just a second. One of the most interesting uh, innovations coming from this fleet of locations that you have is the ability to do these neighborhood kitchens, which I've read a little bit about. Now that is also especially important right now because dining is limited. People are doing a lot more cooking at home and when they're not home they are trying to be outside for as little time and going as little distance as possible. Can you tell me a little bit more about how you are turning some of the locations that REEF owns into kitchens and how that is enriching communities and neighborhoods?

Speaker B: So if you look, if you look at the REEF platform as an app store and you think of each spot, uh, as a space that can be applied for a multitude of uh, uses. One of the uses that we've chosen to stand up um, advantageously at this time, um, and we started well before, um, Covid was the uh, cloud kitchen phenomenon, which we refer to as neighborhood kitchens. And those neighborhood kitchens are delivery only kitchens located within neighborhoods that provide food to, uh, people quickly, easily and efficiently. Um, the difference with REEF is that uh, we have 5,000 locations already. And so rather than like our competitive set, who might need to open, you know, a ghost kitchen outside of the city or a cloud kitchen, we can actually stand up mobile kitchen vessels rather quickly and effectively within our real estate. So we actually use mobile trailers that we take up, uh, anywhere from three to five parking spots and we drive them into the lot and we're able to execute uh, Approximately four delivery only restaurant concepts, depending on menu size out of those trailers. And because we're so close to the customer, the customer can get the food quickly and at a high quality level. And because we are actually the operator of all of these kitchens, we don't license, we don't uh, rent our kitchens out, we actually run them all. Uh, we are able to maintain very high quality standards for what we're able to put out of these, these kitchens. Um, so essentially we are enabling the restaurant business to transform through this, this uh, this amazing transition that's happened. M. You know, everything is a blessing and a curse. So some things really good have come out of it, some obviously not so good. Um, but basically we are giving a platform to restaurants to make, you know, substantial profit and growth with zero capital expense. So let me explain that a little bit more clearly. Uh, if you have, let's say the best pizza restaurant in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, you can deliver within, let's say a five mile radius of that kitchen of like where your location is. If you get into the reef network, we can then execute that pizza in other kitchens throughout the New York tri state area and expand your delivery radius tenfold, which expands your revenue potential obviously tremendously. And then from there we can expand you through our network, uh, in the 20 largest cities in North America. And so we're able to expand, let's say a very incredible small business into a national brand, um, in, you know, with zero capital in under six months.

Speaker A: Well it's certainly an attractive proposition for any uh, would be restaurateur to build a wide network. But what I'm really interested in with you all is your ability to take these 5,000 locations and might I say customize them down to the individual site. I mean this reminds me a lot of just anything that is modular in nature. You can take things out, you can put things in, you can serve unique needs of communities based on where they are and who they are. And that is something which in traditional brick and mortar retail I just don't believe happens all that much. Now I've seen some examples of it. There's a retail concept out there which houses DTC products. For instance. There is a, this is the idea with kitchens sometimes where they have like a, you know, it's kind of like a. Well, I would say like the old style is probably the food court. Right. But that's all very um, chain heavy and not super customized. And that, that is the nature of what I'm interested in next year because everybody, every community is different in its Own unique way. There are different stories to be told around probably each of the 5,000 locations that you serve and can be modular within. Now you, serving as chief Creative Officer, have the ability to harness a lot of these different stories and yet at the same time need to tell a rather broad story uniting them all. So we've talked a little bit about that broad message so far, and you gave a really elegant description of Reef up top. I'd like to get into those more customized, unique stories. What are some of the ways in which you're harnessing those stories right now, the ones that are being told as the communities are being built?

Speaker B: I think a good example to look at is, uh, healthcare. You know, um, obviously there's different healthcare needs, but it's a, it's a vital need in all communities. And so one of the things, you know, we're obviously pretty well known company in Miami because that's where we're based and there's not that many companies like us here. Um, but like the, the government in Miami contacted us about putting fire trucks into our lots and then like basically dropping the, um, the firemen into that location and having them be able to pull out and be at the fire extremely quickly. Or you know, imagine all the EMT materials were like the uh, the hard monitors, all that stuff was, was stored in a lot right on your block, you know, and all the EMTs had to do is pull it out and they could be in your house in, you know, 10 minutes. Or, you know, there's underserved communities that have like you would call food deserts or, you know, need for things like urgent cares. You know, we, we stood up, uh, COVID testing sites, um, and continue to. We're actually involved, uh, in a lot of, you know, COVID testing across, across the country, um, for many, you know, large organizations. But our initial foray into that business was completely charitable, um, philanthropic with the intention of, uh, helping the crisis. And you know, it's now burgeoning into a business line that, you know, some would say it was like a, you know, series A or series B company within its own. And so I think very much the modular application is a reflection of, uh, our belief that we can do well by doing good. And if we can help restaurateurs, if we can help communities, if we can help neighborhoods, and we focus on the people we serve rather than ourselves, we'll be able to build a business that's sustainable and that's meaningful to a lot of people.

Speaker A: And so from a perspective of building out the brand in terms of the stories that get told when you serve these folks and albeit maybe in areas which aren't as, let's uh, say private as healthcare, but certainly in ways in which you're just enriching them and making the, their day better via uh, you know, the ability to go and get something from a local restaurant just down the block. How are you able to turn around and amplify those sorts of stories broadly to say, yes, we are doing wonderful things in healthcare and restaurants and here's an example of that. Hear how Adam is impacted. You know, are there ways in which you're tiptoeing into that, um, while thinking about all of these other aspects of the modular world?

Speaker B: Yeah, since I, so since I've taken this, this role, I've actually been very um, involved in um, the development of content platforms. Um, I'm a strong believer in telling the story through the eyes of uh, the person who's being impacted or the, the organization or community that's being impacted. And so we are uh, going to be setting up a completely editorial, uh, thought leadership platform. And I think it's kind of interesting and rare because this is not a, this is not going to be a REEF platform. This is going to be a platform for REEF to enable the brightest minds in the world to think about the best way for, for cities to look in the future to accelerate positive change per se, which I mentioned earlier. Addition to that, we're also launching a uh, dine at home. And I say dine at home as opposed to delivery because I believe, you know, we're, we're in, we're in the dine at home time now. Um, but uh, we are standing up a content platform called Neighborhood Kitchens which uh, will focus a lot on telling the stories of our restaurant partners and, and the leading uh, delivery food options in all the major cities and in the United States. So um, and Canada. So that's based. These type of content platforms allow for us to you know, choose a vertical and then tell the stories related to that vertical. Um, and our focus really is to just make great content because you know, as I'm sure you know, and you know, I come from a writing background, I've done my share of content. Um, when you create meaningful content, it resonates with people and builds a bond of trust. And that trust really creates in my opinion, value. So like the reason you buy a Starbucks coffee or a, you know, Nike sneaker is because you know that you know what you're gonna get. You trust that you know what you're gonna get. And when you trust that you know what you're gonna get, you're actually willing to pay more for it. And in our case, we, uh, we really are, uh, a young brand with a tremendous platform. And uh, we want to build trust with both our, you know, our B2B partners and our, uh, you know, community, um, kind of like, you know, on the business to business side we have proximity as a service. On um, the community side we have neighborhood kitchens. So neighborhood and proximity are like, are connected. And one is more of a business term, the other is more of an emotional term.

Speaker A: Right, exactly. And you know, the content that you end up producing and can use for good or use for growth is a way to combine both of those things. I forget who, I forget who it was. I think it was Gary Vee maybe that I heard say once that every company is a media company first. Something like that. That seems to like trip around the edges of what you're talking about here.

Speaker B: But one of us is like a media company right now.

Speaker A: Uh, that's how you would think of

Speaker B: it because of everything that's going on. I mean, you know, I've watched and been a part of a lot of brand creation. Uh, my wife is a handbag designer. She's created her entire business off Instagram. And you know, there's very often I have the thought, is what is more real today? Is it the uh, digital world or the physical world? Uh, because like, you know, you see something on a social feed and you're like, oh, I want that, or oh, why don't I have that? Or I'm having fomo, all of those type of like, thoughts. And you know, now we don't have any way to verify because we don't go see each other anymore. So now basically the digital world is the world. And so, you know, as a brand you have to, you like honor the tree falls in the woods kind of thought, uh, it's like, yeah, we can do all this stuff, but we have to share it and tell stories in a, you know, unselfish manner or an emotionally generous manner. Um, that allows for us to connect to people through the digital world because, you know, less and less are we seeing those people and the physical world.

Speaker A: I'm right there with you. It certainly does seem like the digital world is, uh, what is at least more real or more perceptible to many of us right now who are staying at home as again, when we go out, we are looking for the shortest distance from A to B and the fastest route Back home. Um, but this idea that you bring up of you know, standing up a vertical, telling stories about that vertical and allowing it to grow through it makes me wonder what is possibly down the road for reef? Because we've talked about kitchens, of course, we've talked about the healthcare aspect. It seems that with again with this modular nature you could just find another use case and just stand up another vertical. You got the infrastructure ready to go and just, you could bulldoze straight ahead, tell more stories, create a whole new, have a whole new content engine within a certain niche. So I mean are there any ideas? What have you seen? Have you tested some things in the market? I mean what else is out there?

Speaker B: I would tell you that, you know, um, one of the things that, that's, that's kind of unique for the moment and uh, the intention is to make it a platform for entrepreneurs to create a lot of different applications. Um, so um, you know we're believers in open minded innovation, uh, where we want to hear people's ideas and see the best way to do things. This is not like our way or the highway type of company. This is a company built on engineering and collaboration. And uh, so we, we believe in maintaining an organic kind of growth path and continuing to be nimble. Um, with that said an interesting example is the idea of experiential. So we have these spaces, we have this real estate, right? But you know, now that people can't necessarily go to a movie or a concert, what becomes the ultimate place to go do something like that? You know a parking lot. That's, that's kind of like a perfect example. We have food, right? We have kitchens, we have space, uh, we have queuing, we have huh, the ability to manage the cars, we have the ability to pro produce uh, you know, screens or, or concerts or like whatever. So we, we have a platform that can be used for experiential. It could also be used for, for fitness classes, right? You don't really want to go into a fitness studio right now, but I would do. You know, Barry's Boot Camp in my socially distanced circle, uh, in, in one of our, our lots. Um, same thing with you know, drive throughs. There's like a, a whole new world of um, you know, drive through food, ah, experiences and open air food experiences uh, and community gathering places. There's not really many places that you can point to now that are open air, tech enabled, contactless, socially distanced and you know the reef platform provides 5,000 of those places. Um and you know I would predict that you're going to see some interesting things come from us in the next couple of months in that space.

Speaker A: I think that's a fair prediction. It reminds me, even as you were explaining that it reminds me of, and I'll go very brief tangent here, maybe 30 seconds of something that I experienced the other day. I was going for a walk outside, uh, and I happen to live in an area which is adjacent to a parking lot and then like a semi large road. But I was walking past the parking lot and I saw a bunch of cars backed up to each other, like backed into spots, and they're a bunch of trucks. And I guess it was kids that knew each other from like high school or something. They looked about high school age and they were all sitting in the, in the back of their pickup trucks, like in lawn chairs, you know, and all that. And, uh, they were already connecting in this way. And funny enough, they were using the parking lot as the medium to do that because they were able to stay, you know, within a reasonable distance away from each other in the next second.

Speaker B: Go ahead, Stevie Nicks. I don't know. Shoney Mitchell. They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.

Speaker A: Uh, yeah, right. Yeah. Turns out the parking lot is the paradise for people right now.

Speaker B: Yeah, parking lot. Right. We're transforming, you know, urban blight into urban bright.

Speaker A: Yeah, there you go. There you go. Because then I'm thinking like the other thing you said, you talked about fitness. Well, I look across the street and right across from where this is happening. Right, right across from it. Semi large road, as I said, there's a crossfit. And I grew a little wistful because I'm not a member of that gym. But I, you know, the whole reason I'm walking outside is because I can't go to a gym. And then I like peek around the back of the building and they're using the parking lot in the back to do the classes. And I'm thinking, okay, well, these reef guys are up to something. You know, they got the idea. So it's a, it's a prediction. I don't know. I've seen that observational data. So there you go. It's real.

Speaker B: Uh, and I could take zero credit for it, but the world is moving in our direction.

Speaker A: Yeah, I think you're probably right. Well, yes, not probably. I think you are right. Let me round out with this, because now that I have you, now that you're moving in the right direction, part of a brand that is, uh, going to be in a platform that is going to be leaning into this unfortunately accelerated trend again. Something that was supposed to be five, 10 years becoming five or 10 weeks. I want to round out the conversation by asking you for some advice because you've also had all this opportunity to build brands just through your entire career. And I do want to touch on that one word that this show does focus on just a little bit, which is authenticity. And we talked a little bit about things that brush up against authenticity already on this show. But I want to learn through the explicit question, what is your advice to our, uh, listeners on how to build a more authentic brand or how to become more authentic in the way that you go to market? Because the folks that listen to this show typically emulate the journeys of the folks who appear. They are aspiring brand builders, aspiring founders, aspiring chief creative officers. And they know that the best way to tell stories is through the lens and the eyes of the individual, of the consumer, of the person. So you have frontline experience doing this right now. What advice can you give to those listeners? Whether it's based in a real world example or, um, a piece of advice that you yourself were told as to how to help people get more authentic and however you describe that word, because I know there are many different descriptions, but I'd be curious for your top tips there.

Speaker B: I think that the key to this entire idea of authenticity is it must be discovered. It cannot be manufactured. Uh, I think the main, uh, problem that people have in achieving a level of authenticity, especially when it comes to business, but also in their personal lives, is you try to look to the external. So whether that be, you know, material things or, or cars or titles or, you know, what your competitor is doing or commercial considerations, like, that's not where authenticity comes from. Authenticity comes from within, from, um, knowing yourself, uh, understanding what makes you tick and then reflecting that in your creations and generous, generously sharing those creations. So I, I guess my first, uh, idea and whether it's like, um, whether it has to do with, with companies or individuals, is you must look within, see what makes that person or company unique, and then figure out ways to share that. So if I came to Reef and I was like, it should be like Apple or it should be like Google, or it should be like Amazon. And I replicated everything that Amazon did, We would not be successful because we would be trying to be somebody else who we are not. We need to be Reef. We need to be the best Reef we can be. And if we're the best Reef we can be. And that's a reflection of, you know, our founding principles and our founding people. Um, we are going to, you know, do something that not only we will be proud of, um, but something that will be very authentic. And I think that authenticity, you know, resonates with people.

Speaker A: Yeah, I think so, too. I always love getting these pieces of advice because. And I've started, at least pretty recently, to dive into what are the different definitions of authenticity. I never purport to know. In fact, there are probably infinite definitions of how people uniquely describe this, similar to the way in which each of your 5,000 locations is unique in its own way. But it's. It's really interesting to hear your take on it. It's really interesting to just learn more about REEF listeners. I mean, unless you're in Miami, pretty much, my guess is REEF doesn't jump immediately to mind. But it's gonna take it from my little story that wasn't even via reef's platform. Take it from what REEF is doing here. This is a very interesting story. And, um, I'm sure it will develop very, very quickly through at least the rest of 2020, and we'll see beyond that what happens. But for now, Alan, it was wonderful to learn more about it directly from you, to learn what you are doing not just in the, uh, platform itself, but on the media side and eventually, in your words, on authenticity. All great stuff to hear. So thank you so much for coming on the show and it was a pleasure to have you.

Speaker B: It was awesome to be here. Um, I feel like we only scratched the surface, but, uh, you know, hopefully one day they. Soon I'll be able to, uh, continue this story with you.

Speaker A: Thank you so much to Alan Phillips from REEF for joining the show today. I just think this is kind of an ingenious concept. I'm really, really interested in this one to figure out where it'll go. So thanks for telling your story here. If you enjoyed this show and you want to hear more than, here's what you can do. I got a website for you. Go plug this one in. Podcast. Vavoom. Co at the beginning, I said I talk to all sorts of brands. Well, I do that three times a week. And I have hours and hours and hours of content just like this for you to pour through all sorts of industries, all sorts of leaders, all about the same topic, mobilizing masses to become more authentic. I think it's the biggest source in the world of material on this topic. And so get lost in it and then get Lost on LinkedIn. Go connect with me, Adam Connor. I'm there. Let me know what you think of the show and what you might recommend going forward. And of course, there's also the Authentic Influence podcast showcase page there as well. We're building a little community there as well. Make sure you get every episode when it goes live via following that as well. Speaking of, uh, you'll get the next one when I release it, which is why I gotta go. I gotta come right back, give you another episode about how one of the biggest brands in the world is mobilizing its masses to become more authentic each and every day. And until then, I've been Adam Connor. And for Authentic Influence, you'll hear from me again next time.