Episode 669: I Was a Top Food Salesman, Then I Opened a Restaurant and Realized I Knew Nothing - Christian Williams, Sugo Italian Restaurant

Speaker A: All right, what is up? Y' all will here with Schedule Fly. And this is the Restaurant Owners Uncorked podcast brought to you by us here at Schedule Fly. Simple web based restaurant employee scheduling software backed by, uh, legendary customer service. No chatbots, no AI, no people overseas. It is our small team. And when you call, uh, in fact you can, you can go on our site and get my personal phone number, my personal cell, and it's this wonderful flip phone and can call me or text me. Uh, so we take great care of our customers. We have simple software and we have very affordable pricing. We've never taken on venture capital, we're not owned by private equity, so we don't have to keep jacking up prices and trying to get you to pay more for more things. Uh, we have a simple scheduling and communication software. We serve over 5,000 restaurants. We have grown almost solely to that number through word of mouth, although we have a great new partnership, uh, with Benny Keith, and that's germane to this episode today. So we'll talk a little bit about that because that's certainly been a wonderful source of increased customers for us. But listen, we have a 30 day free trial and if you are on pencil and paper or Excel, which are, quote, free, they're not free. They are taking a lot of time, a lot of energy, a lot of, you know, time that could be spent with customers from managers dealing with phone calls, not just creating the schedule, but all the changes. You got staff that frankly these days really want and require an app on their phone. That is a huge issue for the staff these days is to be able to know when they're working and be able to communicate and trade shifts. And so we make all that really, really simple. If you were on pencil and paper or Excel, at least give us a shot. 30 day free trial, no questions asked, no credit card, nothing in advance. You can go to schedulefly.com, click free trial, give it a shot. We'll help you out if you need anything. And then if you're on another scheduling software, look, y', all those things keep, I mean, they keep raising their prices over and over and over. Another big competitor of ours, I heard yesterday, just raise their prices 5% again. So there are people that are paying $150 a month for a scheduling software when they'd be paying us 40. So schedulefly.com 30 day free trial. There's a video on there. Watch that video. You can get my personal cell phone right off of that and call me, text me, I'm Happy to talk to you anytime. My email is banging, so let me turn that off. Sorry about that. Now that's enough about schedule fly. Let's get into restaurant owners uncorked. And I am very pleased and delighted and grateful to have an opportunity to have Christian Williams on here today. Christian, just take a minute and introduce yourself.

Speaker B: Yeah, thanks for the introduction. My name is Christian Williams. I'm a restaurant, uh, owner in Tuscaloosa, Alabama on an Italian restaurant called Sugo. And we specialize in catering more so to our, the University of Alabama students and, uh, their parents coming in. But you know, we have a substantial following from the local community as well. So. Yeah, that's. That's me.

Speaker A: Sugo Italian restaurant. All right, well, I, as you may have heard, listening and all of our listeners know, the only question I ask everybody that comes on here is just tell me how, when and why. The why is the big thing. Did you get involved in hospitality initially?

Speaker B: Yeah. So When I was 16 years old, my very first job was at a Subway restaurant. And, uh, looking back those a while, you know, back then I worked for the summer job just trying to make money. My pay was $4.25 an hour. And I thought I was getting rich, right? Worked every hour I could lowing. Looking back on it, I was working 60, 70 hours a week and I never got paid overtime. Like she was manipulating the book. So she would write me one check for the first 40 hours and then I'd be a separate employee for the next 30. And I didn't even know that's what was happening to me. But I still learned the passion for the restaurant back then, like even though it was a chain fast food. And you know, at that point I was, I didn't work there, but about six months before I took another job doing something else. But I came back to the industry right after graduating high school and started serving. And I served for basically two restaurants for the next eight years or so. And uh, man, it was the time of my life. Like I, I learned so much about it. I learned so many bad habits and how to be. But, uh, I. What I did learn is I had excellent management staff in front of me that to this day I'm very close to and coworkers back then that are my best friends in the world still to this day. And, and uh, it just was something that stuck with me. So then I'm getting through college and I was approached by Cisco Foods to come be a salesperson there. And I think my starting pay was like 45,000 right. So I thought holy cow, like I have hit the big time. Right. Like I'm going to get rich. Yeah, uh, dude, I'm done. I mean like this is all I need.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: And uh, went and did that and was extremely successful early on. Like really really successful at it. And that was through help of a boss. But that I had. But it also was, I was just ferocious. Like I, I loved it. More bad habits, you know, picked up not understanding what the owner and the restaurant side of things really truly deal with. But I did always have in the, the intentions of truly helping the customer. That was important to me over making money. And uh, that's not common I guess. I mean it is common in certain places but it's not real common as an industry as a whole. So then I, I got married, had a kid and left that industry all left industry altogether to go into marketing. Uh, I uh, I led the world's largest manufacturers digital marketing program for, in their space for about 12 years. I was. And to this day I still consult for them but it was a pretty substantial switch. But you know we were global, learned how to build websites, learned how to do what marketing was all about and SEO and you know, search engine optimization and all those things and, and traveled the globe, you know speaking at conferences or meeting with various places all over the world customers and, and teaching them about that. Next thing I know we've built uh, a 25000 page website in seven different languages and we've got, we've you know, got our own studio to do filming in and like it's just grown strong substantially. But then Covid hit and I just decided I was tired of that and uh, so I opened up my own marketing company just to do consulting in March of 2020 which was the worst time in the world to open a marketing company. And uh, yeah that I had, luckily I had you know this company was the, the, the manufacturing company was my largest customer and so it was able to sustain itself through all the trials. Uh, but then I just got an itch and I had been wanting to for years to open a restaurant. It was my passion. And so I just said about three years ago that I was going to do this and open uh, Sugo Wild. I'd also taken a job at Benny Keith which you just mentioned before, which is a family owned distributor and not corporate owned. And that was really impactful for me because the culture is just, was just tremendously different and the partnerships were tremendously different and the transparency was tremendously different. So for us to go out and be able to speak to customers and know what's actually happening behind the scenes and not just spitting out things that we don't have, you know, any knowledge of. Whether it's true or not was a big deal to me. So took that back in 2022 and opened the restaurant simultaneously, pretty much. And so here we are today. I kind of do a little of both. But, uh, you know, I'm dedicated to both and I very much love where I'm at. So. Sorry, that's a long winded conversation.

Speaker A: I love it. There's so many things I want to ask you about from that. Uh, well, okay, so the. Or the. The Subway story is just. You couldn't get away with that these days. That's hilarious that they were. I mean, freaking did. Paying you twice like to avoid the overtime. Wasn't it called the, uh. Was it the U gouge or the V gouge? What was the way they cut the bread when it. Wasn't it like some, like certain terms?

Speaker B: It's a. Yeah, it's a U. They. They. You would go in from the top and you would cut in a big rectangular circle. Is almost like a, uh, you know, you're making a boat out of it.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Depending. And you would, uh. But you could also, you know, it just depended on which sandwich was made. But yeah, man, I spent many a days with that little paring knife cutting. Cutting bread.

Speaker A: Yeah. I had a buddy where I remember him telling me that because he worked at Subway one summer. And, uh, well, when you. You said, okay, so you were working as a server for a while and you said, you know, you learn bad habits. I want to ask you that.

Speaker B: Ah.

Speaker A: Because my guess is you. You mentioned that. But working in that restaurant and having that group of folks you still, you know, know and, and respect, I mean, you probably learned a lot of like, really awesome.

Speaker B: 100%. Yeah.

Speaker A: That. My guesses are my daughter just started working literally yesterday at a restaurant here for the summer. And I was like, you're going to learn so many skills that are transferable to anything you do. Like, you don'. But if you're able to stand there, she's going to be a hostess and, uh, greet people and make them feel welcome and give them good eye contact and be present and intentional and navigate all the chaos that's going on. Like, you're going to learn a lot of, you know, skills that you'll be able to take to whatever you do.

Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, so this restaurant, the first one was, uh, the largest restaurant In Tuscaloosa at the time, it was right on our waterfront, which is we have this river called Black Warrior river, and it was called Cypress Inn. And, um, it was considered the staple of Tuscaloosa. Like there. It's not like it is today, where there are a lot of as many choices as there are today. But Cypress in was the go to known all over the state. I mean, you know, you didn't come to Tuscaloosa without eating it. Cyprus Inn, it just wasn't so. And. And to this day, the staff there and the management there. We did a interview probably a year ago to how much our, uh, core group of people that work there now influenced the Tuscaloosa food scene. So, like, there's like, from that restaurant and, uh, from my particular group of coworkers, we own like eight or nine restaurants in Tuscaloosa now. It's wild. So that place is closed down. But that, from that and that group, that Tuscaloosa now has, you know, majority of their, you know, food scene is somehow connected to us. So we did learn a lot of good habits and we did learn a lot from that owner. But at 20 years old, what do you care about? You don't care one bit about the customer. I mean, you do, but you don't. You know, your first priority is I want my drinking money. I want.

Speaker A: Yeah, you're very much into yourself. And that's. I mean, I know I was for sure.

Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I was totally into myself. And so I wanted my section. I wanted not to have to do the side work. I wanted to, you know, I wanted the customer to give me 20% whether I, I did a good service or not. You know, like, I, uh, I learned to be able to see. I knew to give away, you know, free sodas to get, you know, to make that customer feel like they got a deal. You know, like, I. I, uh, cheated the system any way I could to maximize my value. Friends came in, sure, you can get a free appetizer. I'll avoid it and call it a problem. You know, I was a terrible, terrible. I mean, I had terrible habits. Looking back on it, that didn't sink in, of how impactful what I was doing helped was the bottom line of the restaurant. And you've mentioned this several times in just a few podcasts I've been able to listen to. But you were told one time that pennies matter, right?

Speaker A: Like, yeah, oh, yeah. Money, money, money. Business of pennies.

Speaker B: Yeah, dude, it is a business of pennies. And I did not appreciate those pennies whatsoever back then. I mean, I just didn't. I just thought he was rolling in it. And he was. I mean, he was doing back then a restaurant in Tuscaloosa doing $4 million or whatever it was a year was incredible. Yeah. Like, he was a machine. Yeah. But we can also tank that $4 million really quick, you know, if we're not doing our jobs right.

Speaker A: Yeah, well, you know, I mean, boy, now more than ever, right? Like, it's, uh. Yeah, I mean, the, you know, it was a different thing back then. I think that's where the common perception of like, the. The restaurant owner is like this guy or this gal that just kind of comes in glad hands. They're just rolling in cash. And may. Maybe back then, I don't. But, man is not the case now. In fact, the. There was a. There was an owner that I met with yesterday with. With the local Benny Keith rep here in the Charlotte area. And, uh, she started a restaurant a year ago and she just said she's like, my perception of what this was going to be and what it really is is night and day. I, uh, like, I. Everybody told me I was crazy to do this, and I was like, nah, this. I got this. And she's like, I. I couldn't have been more wrong, you know, and they're. I mean, they're really. Your rep was in there. He's doing a really good job giving her advice, giving her ideas. Like, hey, you got wine on your. Your, you know, kitchen and wine bar, but you got wine that people can buy at Harris Teeter. Like, let's talk about your wine. I was so impressed with your rep yesterday, by the way. You're like, it was awesome listening to him give her all these ideas, but it is so much harder than most people think. Particularly nowadays in today's time.

Speaker B: Uh, I'm not going to go off on speaking about Benny Keith in particular a lot, but I'll say this. You have a president of that particular, uh, North Carolina division. His name's Keith Swan. And I actually he was our assistant general manager down here before he took that job. And he's tenacious and he came from, you know, Alabama knowing that you don't just hire any reps. You hire people that are passionate and really good. You. You take the best of the best in the sales world, you know, and have them work for you. So if I have any. I don't know, this guy that you were just talking about, uh, if you said his name, it wouldn't mean anything. To me. But what I'll say is that I do know Keith is up there most likely hiring, you know, the very best of salespeople he can find that actually care and know what they're talking about. And that's just not the case anymore in the distribution side. They just want warm bodies at most of these stock, you know, at these publicly traded companies. And it, it's evident. I mean, they have their advantages, these corporate, you know, publicly traded ones. But, yeah, you're that rep. I have no doubt was well trained and, and, and knows what he's doing now. On the other side of that coin, I thought I knew everything, right. Coming from Cisco and being I m. Was like the number three salespeople person in the state. When I quit, like, I was rolling. And I left that in, you know, left going into digital marketing, thinking I know everything there is to know. You can't teach me a whole lot about the restaurant industry. And then, like your new cus, you know, like that lady, I opened, uh, my first doors, uh, the doors to Sugo, and realized, oh, my God, everything I've ever said to these owners has to be reevaluated. And I called. You would not believe how many people I've called since then and been like, I am sorry. Now that I'm behind the checkbook, I, uh, completely understand what you're doing and why you did what you did.

Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker B: And it's just, you know, I have restaurant managers that as to the worst part of this industry is restaurant managers and sales reps, and even the sales reps managers, they all, they all swear they know this industry, but not a one of them, um, that has. Has. If you've never had to write a check for something out of your own pocket, you don't understand it. And you do not understand all of the different reasons for why things are coming at you the way they are and why you might make a decision one way or the other. You just think, my God, I've got a cheaper green bean. This is the best one for you. Well, it's not that easy. That's not. It's. It's just not that simple of, uh, uh, making a decision like that. But they don't understand it. And I've said in training seminars, even to this day, where I listen to somebody, a manager, trying to teach the class about restaurant ownership and all the percentages and all that. Not, uh, I'm sitting here thinking you don't have a clue. Your numbers are so far off, you're trying to make a Point. But you don't have a effing clue what you were talking about.

Speaker A: It's true. It's so true, man. Well, you know, I. One of the things you told me, I want to. I want to tap into this a little bit because you said that when you were at Cisco, you were really focused on the wellbeing and success of the customer.

Speaker B: Yep.

Speaker A: That tells me, like, if you would. If you told me that and said nothing else, I'd say top performer. I don't care what sales role you're in. If you're. If your focus is on the customer, you're going to be a top performer. Like, if that's the first focus and then your. Your sales and everything else become, like, the byproduct of that. I believe that intensely. Uh, I, uh. It's. It's a. It's what separates top performers. I really do believe that. It's a bigger picture perspective. It's understanding that if I'm actually adding value to this customer and helping their business be successful, then obviously they're going to work with me and they're going to be. And frankly. And it's what, you know, I think Benny Keith does a really great job of with, um. And, um, that's why y' all are doing this host program. It's like, okay, if we can help our customers solve business problems, then they stay in business longer and obviously they're going to be buying more food. Like. But if you. If you have the short side of like, I gotta. I'm gonna go sell them something. I'm gonna do it today. That's what separates, you know, the top performers, I think, in any. Any sales organization. But the reason I say that is because that actually gets back to working in a restaurant. So when you were young and you were 20, you're like, hey, I'll just void this out, man. Because you're thinking about, like, your tips. But now as an owner, you can understand and it's. I'm sure you train your staff and try to help them understand. It's like, no, no, no. Like, don't milk the clock and come in early and try to do all these things for yourself, because you actually end up hurting yourself. If you focus on the guests and make sure everything's wonderful for them and the restaurant's thriving, you actually are going to have a job longer, you're going to make more money, you're going to learn, you know, all that kind of st. It's hard to teach young people that, though. It's hard to Teach. You know, I'm trying to preach that to my daughter, but I'm like, I know she's 22. I know how much I would have been listening to that when I was 22, like. But I mean that is the mentality that that really makes the difference. And that lady yesterday was talking about having a hard time with staff, like finding good people that, you know, really want to want to work hard and don't want to just like kind of work whenever they feel like it. And um, so that's one of the challenges I wanted to ask you about today because I feel like I'm hearing that a lot, which is like I heard it during COVID Cause like nobody was. Everybody left the industry, nobody's working. And then it got better and there's people out there to work, but it's like, is that the person I really want on my team? Are they willing to make any effort for our team and work hard? And it seems like that's a challenge almost everywhere these days.

Speaker B: So it's not only a challenge in for the restaurant owner, it's a challenge for the Benny Keith of the world and those kind of things too, right? Like how many delivery drivers can you get that want to be good and focused at their job or they just want to get through with the process and get paid. Right? Or, or uh, like with us at the restaurant, you know, a hostess is going to stand up there and understand that you will your first impression on that customer matters. You not smiling matters. You telling them, oh, I'll get to you when you can. Matters. The server not refilling the waters and not pre busing the table and all of that matters. The experience matters for everybody. And so I think, I think we as restaurant owners and as a whole, we want the best, but it's hard to find it because like I live in a college town, right? So like I'm seasonal with, with getting employees and, and the college kids right now that are here in the summer, they're not that great at it, right? Like they're, they haven't been here long and everybody else left town to go to where they distribute to, you know, their, their homes or whatever. So we're having to retrain staff all over and then the old guard will come back in and, and they'll have picked up, you know, their bad habits or whatever. It's a struggle, man. I mean, it is. And, and I think that, I think that now where the never efficiencies and to where you as an owner can get trained, can can focus on what really matters in the restaurant industry is important. And I think that there's. So I get calls. And this has nothing to do with Benny, Keith or Suga? Well, I guess a little with sugar. But I get calls a lot. For me to just kind of be a, uh, marketing and kind of like, uh, I don't want to say mentor, but basically, you know, a lot of people will call me now because we have a very good marketing set up at Sugo. We are really good at what we do as far as that goes. Now, we have holes other places, but I. I, uh, consult a lot with restaurants that call me and want to, you know, kind of pick my brain about things. But it's. That's what you have to focus on now. I mean, like, if you're sitting here nickeling and diming the invoice or you're, you know, still stuck in scheduling apps, like you're, you know, writing it down on pen and paper like you do, you're crazy. I mean, you. You don't have time for that. Your time has to be spent on, uh, what matters and what really matters. In today's world, with the economy the way it is, people being on the shot, you know that the GOP shot has greatly affect our industry. And so what is your focus? Your focus is on why is your restaurant experience better than the one down the road? What makes Will Brawley want to come bring his people to that restaurant instead of the one right beside you? And if you can't distinguish that and look in the mirror and be honest with yourself, then you are going to struggle.

Speaker A: Yeah, that's. I mean, that's it. You. I think the stat I saw was like, 42% of independent restaurants either lost money or broke even last year. I mean, that's. That's rough. And, you know, the consumer part of that's because the consumers. I mean, it's expensive. Like, you know, I took my two of my three kids, like, got ice cream and went and had dinner at like, a fast casual place. And, you know, it was like 50 bucks for. I was like, really? Like, how's that? But so it gets harder. So then it's like, okay, well, when we go, you know, we're. People are always going to go out. I mean, even if they're on the shot, they want to go out just because they don't want to deal with. They just want to go somewhere. Right? Like, you know, get out of the stresses of being at home. And honestly, it's the best place to connect now. Going, uh, to a restaurant. I mean, my two kids and I, last night, we talked about it. We were like, on the way home, we're, like, just going out for whatever reason. When we're at home, there's distractions and screen, like. And, uh. But when we go out, we have, like, the best conversations ever. Like, we absolutely do. It's almost like the going out experience is so different now because it's. We value it more because we are surrounded with too much information, and, uh, we're on our screens too much and we're too distracted. So. So then the question becomes, when we go out, where do we go? And where we go is not necessarily. That is the very best food. You know, I mean, the food. It's like, where are we going to feel welcome? Like, the place we went last night, I mean, they just do a really good job of, like, you come in, it's like. And this is one of those ones where you order and they bring it. But, like, everybody there is making eye. I, uh, was telling my kid, I'm like, simple stuff, y'. All, like, eye contact, smile. Like, don't be looking around, you know, like, be right there taking the order. And then they bring the food and, like, look you in the eyes. Thank you for being there, you know, and just come check on you. Anything y' all need. Like, how's everything going?

Speaker B: It.

Speaker A: That's so awesome. Like, it's so awesome nowadays because you. It's. It's like, more rare, and you just want to feel like they actually give

Speaker B: a crap, uh, 100%. And I mean, it's even down to, like. So we're. We're. If, you know, the restaurants are chasing all the time, they look at the chains like, ooh, that idea looks good. Or they look at their local competitor in the independent restaurants, and. And they try to rip off their special or whatever else, you know, and it's like. Like, we have become very, very popular for, uh, what we call girl dinner. I did not invent girl dinner. I mean, but I brought it to the. To Tuscaloosa, and pretty much. I mean, I'm. I, um, would imagine a lot of people around the state will know who we are because of that. And. But we. We are wild. Wildly, wildly known for this. And it. It's simple. It's. It's a little bowl of. Of Caesar salad, it's a little bowl of French fries, and it's a little bowl of pasta that you can mix and choose, and you get a cocktail or a glass of wine or a mocktail. And it's 20 bucks. And it. It's a lot of food in these little small portions, along with a drink for 20. You can't barely go get a drink for 15 now, right? Like, 13, $14 is the average cocktail.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: But we are able to market that experience. And now the. The women get to come in and be like, oh, uh, I'm here for girl dinner. Right. They're not here for sugo. Uh, they're not here for whatever. They're here to hang out with their girlfriends and. And have girl dinner together in an experience. And if you cannot provide that, you are, you know, something to that effect, and you're taking the wrong choice. Now why did we do that? Is it a gimmick? Maybe, but it's. It's solving the problem of price is solving the problem of too much food. Nobody wants to go in an Italian restaurant anymore and eat a massive bowl of pasta. Like, that's just not how it works. So you have to adjust what you do to the customer's needs. So we solve price and we solve experience in one fell swoop. Now, in Tuscaloosa, four or five of these restaurants have chased after the girl dinner. And they're, you know, they're failing at it because they, you know, if you're chasing, you're losing. And every one of these, you know, we. We flipped it into pasta flights. So now you can get three bowls of pasta in those, you know, little square bowls that are, you know, probably, I don't know, probably ends up being the size of a regular size pasta bowl, but it's 15 bucks, and you can get three different style pastas at one time. Like, we are constantly trying to look for the new thing and, and constantly trying to grow the experience level of the restaurant, which gives us marketing ability, gives us, you know, price ability, and gives us changing the size portions for the GLP shot ability. Like, you just have to adapt. And I feel that that's a big thing. Where restaurants fail at. Is adapting, uh, on what was working five years ago does not work today. It just doesn't.

Speaker A: The. Well, here's the thing. The industry collectively is as adaptive and resilient and creative as any industry. And, uh, always will be. The. The individual restaurant may or may not be, but with every unfortunate restaurant failure, the industry actually gets collectively better because that restaurant failed by not doing things that the industry needed to do to get better as an industry, if that makes sense. But I do really, I really. That. Because y', all, you, your peers, there's No, I mean, Covid is the best. If you. If you didn't see it during COVID you're just never going to get it. But, like, here's an industry that could have just, like, been sunk and like, the creativity and adaptability and resilience and all that went into, like, carrying the industry through that is incredible. Absolutely incredible. And it just showed that particularly the. The independent owner who has their livelihood tied up into this, who their restaurant is, is their baby, it is their passion, it is their love, it's their joy, it's their blood, sweat and tears. You know, that that owner is, uh, has every incentive in the world to find ways to continue to adapt and evolve. And you're right. And if you. If you don't, especially now, it's. It's not going to work. I want to. I want to talk to you about marketing because you spent all those years, you know, with marketing. I'm, like, fascinated with marketing. And you said the word gimmick a man in the Gay Christian. But it's not a gimmick. It's a, uh. To me, it's with marketing and with doing, like, what you did with Girl. That's. I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think of, like, behavioral psychology and like, understanding how people think and how do we take how people think and how we make them feel. And really, most of it's, you know, we're. We are irrational creatures who post rationalize our decisions, but most of our decisions are emotional. And so something like girl night is you're attaching yourself to this concept and this idea, and you imagine yourself going out with your friends and like, that's, uh, a. That's brilliant marketing in my. Like, that's no gimmick. That's like leveraging, understanding the way people make decisions in a really effective way. But talk a little bit about what you learn in marketing because you said y' all are really good at Sugo at that. So talk about what you learned and how you were able to deploy that, uh, so well at Sugo. Yeah.

Speaker B: And I'll try not to be long winded with it.

Speaker A: Bring it, man. I love this stuff.

Speaker B: So let me start with number one again. I'll go back to the restaurant owner's priorities. And if you. If you don't have time to focus on it, then you're not going to be good at it. And so the little things, like, um, let's take your system, for instance. I was on seven shifts, right? Like, I was paying 90 bucks a month. Didn't use all these crazy bells and whistles and, you know, switched over to you and it's working just fine. And we are streamlining our scheduling system. Right? Like, we don't have to dedicate a ton of time to making a schedule each week. If you look at buying food, for instance, you're so caught up as restaurant owners trying to look at the price of your chicken breast versus, you know, the other rep that you have or the other distributor you have, and you're not even number one. You don't know what you're looking for because that's not where they're going to try to price, you know, get. Make their money on you anyway. But you're so focused on, oh my gosh, my, my food costs are high or oh my gosh, my labor is high. And yes, those all have to be addressed. But a system like yours fixes that, right? We can go in and we can sit here and say, this is how many hours, you know, based on our sales numbers we're going to use. And with the food distributor, you can always go in and say, hey, let's set up a system where I'm going to agree to buy a certain percentage from you and we'll work out a deal that way. And you can almost set it and forget it.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker B: Like you, you really can on those things. So then if you get into the marketing side, you have to know your marketing or, uh, your, your demographic at that point. Right. Like if you're in the middle of a rural area and there are meet in three type people, stop trying to serve a filet. Right. And stop trying to put things on there that are that important. But for me, I knew and know very well how to reach the general public. I'm very, very good at that. That's one thing that I'm very proud of myself for. So I use systems, you know, like my website is going to capture people's data if they allow us to, and it's going to give me a chance to market to them. Now, we don't on that side, we don't do a great job of it, but we're able to use social media. For instance, I'm in a college town. What do you think the number one thing that people are looking at in my town are? It's TikTok and Instagram. So where do I need to be good at? I need to be good at TikTok and Instagram.

Speaker A: Yep.

Speaker B: So my background is just, you know, to where we were trying to grow, you know, visibility and by Doing that. How does your restaurant rank when somebody searches for best restaurant near me or best Italian food near me or, you know, when we get on social media, do you have people posting about you, you know, all those kind of things? What's your review rating? How are you getting reviews? Google ranks you by, you know, with restaurants a lot on how often you're getting reviews and what those. Those are. So are you working that system like it matters? All of it matters. But that's the last thing, unfortunately, that restaurants owners seem to focus on. And it's, I think, largely a big reason why, uh, restaurants go under. Because I, I opened with four other restaurants the year, the month I, uh, opened. All of them are closed except for me. Every one of, uh, them. And it's because I think it's not because they didn't have good food, it's because nobody knew about and they didn't get the word of mouth out there. And it doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg to do that. But, you know, if you ask about me personally, like, we, we have him. We're starting an ambassador program. So there's influencers that are going to work for free for us to push our name out there on the college campus, right? Like they're, they're 6, 8 to 15 students who blow to be able to be a part of a. They want to grow their, you know, resume for lack of better terms, and so they work for us. Or, you know, a gift card. Well, um, you've got 15 college students out there pushing your brand. Are you kidding me? For a $20 gift card? You're not ready to do that. You're. I mean, next month we have 125 influencers coming to help us launch a new offering that we're all. We're doing. 125. Will, how many of 125 people making a TikTok and Instagram post about you, do you think that gets around my t. Holy cow.

Speaker A: How. Okay, dive into this a little. Like, how did you tell me about this program? How do you get influenced? Like, because there's a lot of restaurants that we serve. I know. Or people that are listening to this are in college town. So how. Tell me about this a little bit more. Like if I'm a restaurant owner and I'm in Chapel Hill or something like that, where. Yeah, like, what would I do to go replicate what you're doing?

Speaker B: Well, I mean, it's, I'm a little simplified and I mean, this is where most restaurants end up Owners call me and get, you know, I'll work with them over a couple months to help do it. But it's, uh, it, it mainly boils down to you. Again, I'll say this as best I can, but you have to change your focus off of the, you know, the, the food rules and the food cost rules and the labor rules, and focus your attention to what growing your restaurant looks like. So if you take social media, for instance, you can, let's take in my town, Bama Rush. Everybody's probably seen it on hbo, the show that, you know, the Bama Rush show where all the sorority girls are trying to rush, right? Like, well, you can use certain hashtags and see who's posting about that, right? Like they use the hashtag Bama Rush. If you click that little icon, you can see everybody that's posted about it. Then you can take a little dive into their profile page and see, oh, they've got this many followers, they're making this many posts. Their engagement on the post is this much. And you can reach out to them. You just send them a DM and say, hey, I'd love for you to come in and, and, and get a meal on me and, and, you know, do a little quick Instagram post or TikTok about it. And as you're doing that, you'll become that. You find more and more of the people that are highly involved in it. So, like, uh, you start getting into the sororities themselves. They'll, you know, you can start working with those, the, the social chairs at the sororities, and you can start working with the event planners at the sororities, and you can have them, um, you know, be your best friends, for instance. I mean, think about this, Will. What if the social chair of the biggest sorority and the event planner at that sorority are fans of yours? What do you think the return on investment is? Yeah, like, it's huge. So, and I'm just saying this for sororities, but you don't have to be just Greeks. There's, there's also the influencers in the real world. Like we have a, a mother of two that, uh, if you look on our Instagram that just made a post, she did a video trying out girl dinner or whatever. And on. I think it's on Instagram alone, it's, it's 60,000 views. I mean, like 60,000 views and all these shares and all these likes. What. My brand will grow dramatically for that. So the influencer marketing to me is probably one of the greatest benefits any restaurant, no matter where they are can go. People want to have an experience with realistic, you know, organic content. They do not want your professional photo shoved down their throat in a post that says, ooh, look at my chicken parmesan. It's the greatest ever. Okay, whatever, dude. Everybody says that. Now give me something real. Give me somebody that came in here and didn't put on an act and gave us a real review. Because we have people in Tuscaloosa that. That try to do influencer marketing, and it's just fake. It's just terrible marketing. They think they're doing it right, but they're like, they're reaching out to these people and they're. They're getting them, um, to come in. And these people are just making pure poster sales pitch, you know, videos that are terrible, and it's not moving the needle for them at all. So they don't. You know, it does take an understanding and working with somebody that kind of understands what kind of content is important. But for your listeners, the best thing to do is just get started. That's the one more thing I could tell you. And just take the time to do a little research in your town on Instagram and TikTok and. And work with, you know, reach out to people and see what you can come come up with.

Speaker A: Yeah, I was thinking as you were talking, you know, like, I. I mentioned, like, if you're in a college town, but you don't have. I mean, there's influencers in every city and every town. And I do think you nailed something so important that I. I just want to underscore, which is the make. Make the content and ask, you know, uh, find influencers that do this, but just make it real. Authenticity that appre. Authenticity is currency now. I really do believe that. I think people are so tired of getting bombarded with just fake bs, uh, scripted stuff, and they just want authentic. Like, somebody that went and was like, this place is cool. And here's why is so much better than just like, this thing where you're like, this is. Man, they just paid that person to say that or whatever.

Speaker B: Well, think about it. Why do people listen to yours, you know, your podcast? Because it's just two people having a conversation about the industry that are just telling the truth. They're not. I'm not trying to gain anything from your listeners.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Uh, yeah, yeah. So it's so funny because when our first episode was March of 2010, I had to, like, beg people to do this, Christian. Because, I mean, nobody even knew what A podcast was like, yeah, uh, wasn't even a way to distribute it. We literally took an audio file and embedded it into our, uh, blog. And the way I recorded it for several years, honestly, was I had a $35 mic plugged into the USB port of my laptop and there was no video. It was all audio. And then I literally took my phone, I had a BlackBerry at the time, and I put on speakerphone and I would like, hold it up next to the mic or the phone call. But I, uh, felt like from the beginning I was like, restaurant owners just getting on here and talking is going to be inspiring to other owners and it's going to educate other owners and they need inspiration because it's a hard freaking gig. It was then, it is now, and they need to hear I'm not the only one doing dealing with this. And then they need education, they need ideas, like, what you're talking about here. Like, how do I. Because I'm like, freaking arms deep, right? Like, running my business every day is an owner, and it's hard for me to get out from under that. And so my thought was like, well, gosh, if you're driving around or you're on a walk with your dog and you can listen to other owners talk, like, you know, not. Not for anything other than just like, tell me, tell me the stuff that sucks too. You know, like, what's, what's hard and like, what are you doing about it? Like, GLP1's like, that kind of sucks because people are going and splitting a plate instead of having two plates. And like, but what do you do about it?

Speaker B: And.

Speaker A: And uh, but anyway, so my point is like, yes, authenticity matters. M. I've learned that for our own brand. Like, I am as open book as you can freaking be. I get on like, you know, LinkedIn. I mean, I. I make mistakes and screw stuff up. And I'm talk about that as much as I do about the things that are going well. Like, you know, uh, people care about that because, you know, this is weird thing where there's like, there's so much data and so much technology and there's AI and all this stuff is really, really helpful and it matters, but it's like there's somewhere this blend of, like, humanity and technology where you need both. But, like, the more we're surrounded with the tech, the more we need, like, real human connection.

Speaker B: And that is 100% true.

Speaker A: Yeah. And to me, restaurants are kind of the last place you, you get it. You know, like, that's where you can actually get that with your family, with your community, with people that are working there.

Speaker B: Uh, well, you made it. You made a. You had a. It's amazing how much it changes too, so quickly. I listen to a podcast. I probably listened to five or six, your podcast so far, but I kind of go through and I pick which ones I.

Speaker A: Yes.

Speaker B: Pop out to me with the headline. But I don't know, it was last year, maybe in February or so. You did a podcast with a guy named Cameron Long. He. He owns an a. He was doing an AI startup at the time, right?

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker B: And he. Well, he. He started, you know, he started up an AI, uh, voice, you know, phone company. And I cannot imagine if you retalk to him again today, what the differences in his business would be like. Just from February of last year, his competitors have grown substantially. I mean, I know five or six AI, uh, Voice, you know, phone company. I bet he would tell a completely different story than where he was just a year ago. And so, like, we have an AI, uh company doing our phones because there is a tremendous value to it. You lose a lot of sales by not being able to answer the call because you're too busy or you're leaving them on hold. All these things. Right. So, you know, you. You have to adapt every day to whatever is coming. Now, that will never change. The human interaction part, and I think where, you know, where I was think you were going with it. Is it the. The organic and the human nature of everything that we do in the restaurant industry is a last, you know, kind of. It. It. It's just the one of the last few places you can get that, and we expect that. So, like, with my marketing, it has to be organic and it has to be natural feeling. And with my service looking in the eyes, like you said earlier, that has to be real. I do not want a server standing at the table spilling a speech, like some robotic speech. They need to look at Will and get to know Will and his family. Like, they do not need to do what the same thing at Will's table as they did with Christian's table. It's two different people. We're humans. Well, with.

Speaker A: With different objectives. Uh, right. Like in the room so important. Like, okay, here's a family of five and they're out for dinner and they're having fun. And then here, over here, it looks like maybe they came from a funeral or something. And like, you know, like, adjusting that. Uh, yes. So it's interesting you said that because Vernica, they're actually here in North Carolina and I still, I know them well. And uh, gosh, the, the, the possibilities with AI are, I mean really for restaurants are incredible. Like you could think of like, because I talked to them about this. Like, you know, what you call agentic AI, like basically managing the back office of your restaurant eventually. Like doing most of the stuff. Right. Like, so that, so that not to replace people but more to like give the person who's, it shouldn't be back there doing that time to be out there checking food quality, training staff, engaging with customers and all that. So I, I find that stuff to be fascinating. Uh, and you know, I don't know

Speaker B: if this is a competitor of his or not, but let me tell you something. If I started, you know, I get, I get one thing, I get a lot of other than, you know, market people contacted me for marketing help. I get a ton of potential investors wanting to open up a new place with me. Right. Like they don't want to buy my restaurant, they just want me to go open a new place up.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: And like they, they know that, that I have a, and God willing we stay this way, but they know that I know what I'm doing at my restaurant. And we've been successful. You know, we're year three and, and most people look to say pay their restaurant off in a five year span or whatever. We could do that in year three. Like we know what we're doing and we, but we, we have tools in place. It's like, and I tell people all the time, if I were starting a restaurant tomorrow, you would not. The very first investment I would make is in this program called Margin Edge. Now I'm telling you all this, I'm not an affiliate of theirs. I don't get anything from them. But Margin Edge can run your entire back office basically. Like you, it's going to tell you when the price of goods goes up. You can put your recipes in there. And every time one of those boxes of apples or whatever you bought from the distributor changes, it's going to adjust your recipe cost so you know, your plate costs. You can have your P and L in there. You can have. There's so many things that can streamline your business right now and make it to where you don't have to live this stressed out life. And you know, if you're, you're, you're, you're, you're getting killed or not. What's the. We just had a tomato crisis and right now we're in the middle of a Romaine crisis. Anybody buying romaine right now is paying through the roof prices for romaine. Well, I do. I buy a lot of. Because I do Caesar salads and. And girl dinner is our most popular thing. So we're selling a lot of that. Well, my price has doubled in the past two months. Double. But I know my plate cost every single time because I can see that that $50 case of lettuce turned into a hundred dollar case of lettuce. And my back end shows me that. So instead of me sitting here doing pencil to pen, I don't have to do that anymore. And I can go to a schedule plot and I can. Like I told you earlier, you know, we don't have to worry about if we're managing labor. Right. Because I'm going to plug in an expected sales number of, let's call it, you know, $20,000. I'm just making a number up and. And you're going to tell me how many hours I have. A lot.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: You know, I mean, it's just that easy. So if you take those burdens off your plate and you can focus on, let's say, reaching out to people that can make a difference in your restaurant, like, you know, this Cameron guy or somebody, you know, somebody like me who does marketing, and that's where you're spending your day, then you're going to see a tremendous difference in, in your growth.

Speaker A: I'm going to have to send this episode to Beau, the CEO over there. Margin edge. I know, Bo. Good.

Speaker B: I. I don't know. To save my life. I do use them, but I, I will say that they are, uh, they're tr. I tell him though, when you tell him, I expect any royalties to come directly to my account. I need a few. Three months.

Speaker A: There you go. I'll send this to them. I will. Well, I noticed. So you, you also use, if I'm not mistaken, for your website, y' all use Spillover. Uh, right, we do.

Speaker B: But I am about to change that and I am. Spillover is a tremendous tool. They. I've been with them since my first day. There is another program that I'm going to move over to owner.com. it was a. Something. I, I have nothing negative to say about Spillover. Just a fantastic company. My rep over there payola is amazing. They are like you with customer service. If you reach out, you're going to get something right back. Yeah. The issue for me is, is I can't grow the way I want to grow from an SEO standpoint and having my, uh, Brand all over the Internet without a company like owner.com. and so I'm making a switch, and without going into detail, I'll gladly. You know, I don't know, I could go into hours of why this is important, but it's. You, uh, need to be on top is all I can tell you. The more and more you can grow in your surrounding areas and your. Your menu items, it's very important. And I, uh, can't do that necessarily with Spillover, but I can with Omer. So those are great partners, though. Uh, I'll say this. If you don't. If you're trying to, you know, you don't pay very much for a website with Spillover, and they take care of everything you need right off the bat. And if you look at my website, I bet you think it's a very pretty website and it looks great, right? Like, people love our website.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. They're Spillover, uh, and Owner. Both great businesses, for sure. Well, yeah, to your point, you know, you're just. You're constantly growing and evolving, so I want to respect your time. Boy, there's so many.

Speaker B: I mean, I'm good with whatever for you just. We'll go as long as you want to for a little bit, but I know you've got time, too, that you got to keep it in.

Speaker A: Yeah. Well, so tell me about. You're. So you're there in Tuscaloosa. I mean, not a bad place to be. Man, what a growing, uh, university. My goodness. Uh, how many students are there?

Speaker B: We have about 45,000 students on campus each year. We are about a 56% female to male ratio at the campus, which is a little uncommon for most universities. But again, I know my demographic, right, Will? So, like, my demographic has 56% women. Where do you think my target market is, like, and where are all those guys chasing those 56% women going to go if they know 56% of the women are coming into Sugo?

Speaker A: Well, uh, the college. The college environments. I want to ask you about this, because I don't.

Speaker B: I talked.

Speaker A: I think I told you. I talked to Hunter at a session cocktail, and he's there in Tuscaloosa. And he's also. And he was just saying that, like, I was asking about the trend of, like, college students, even college students these days, not. Not consuming as much alcohol. I mean, alcohol in general, you know, is down, but even in some college towns. And he told me that Auburn, that was very much the case. Not. Not nearly as much in Tuscaloosa. But the, the younger kids these days, a lot of times they are more into, you know, fitness, and they're have all these apps and they're tracking all this stuff and, and everything. Uh, I'm curious what y' all see there from that perspective. I'm also curious if you're seeing what I've heard some college, at least college bar owners say, maybe not quite the same, but they talk about how the boys are not able to take the girls out as much because they're spending all their money on these stupid gambling apps, which as a father, two boys around that age I hate. But it seems to be legitimate. Like, they, they, they spend a lot of time and money on these things. Do you see, Are you seeing any of that down there as well? Because that's something you have to start to adapt to. Also.

Speaker B: What I found is like, my son's in a. He's a 20 year old, works at the restaurant. He's in a fraternity here in, in town. And you know, you look at his, his fraternity brothers and some of them come from these just huge, you know, families with massive amounts of wealth in them, um, and all that kind of stuff. And, and they, they probably could spend anything they really wanted to, but they're on budgets. Like, they, they, they can't. Like, for whatever reason, even the ones that I talked to one kid one time that was taking a private jet that weekend to Ibiza, like, just randomly, and it was like, what? Like one of it. And I'm like, this is crazy. Like, I, I could not go to across the bridge over here and when I was in college because I couldn't afford it. But, you know, I think that the, um, I think that it's not as much they're not, they don't have the money. It's where they're choosing the money from. And I will go back to this will. I mean, it's what experience matters most to these kids. And you have not, you know, like, we have a huge bar here in town called Innisfree. You know, I think Kim Kardashian was in there not too long ago and whatever else. Like, you know, they're famous. They were on Saturday Night Live once. Like, but you, you have to provide an atmosphere and an experience that Bright wants to bring people there. And if you're just staying stagnant, you know, Sessions is right across the street from me. The Hunt, the one you're just about. Like, literally you can. I'll, uh, look out my front door and there they are. They're in A great location, but you have to adapt. And I'm not saying he. He's successful. I don't. I don't really know much about what they do, but, you know, if you're staying the same, you're not growing, and most of these places that do very well can still sell a lot of beer and still sell a lot of liquor. They just adapt to what the trending thing is and what the pattern is that these people want. If it's a gambling problem, why are you not running sports in your restaurant or in your bar? I'd be running the soccer matches. I'd be running the NCAA tournaments. I'd be doing some kind of, you know, beer specials for that tournament. And I. You have to adapt. And if you're not, then you've got a problem. If it's. If it's a gambling thing, run a freaking, you know, fantasy football draft experience for people or whatever else. Like, I'm just spitting. Yeah, I'm going to. I promise you, if that's my problem, we're going to do something to be a part of.

Speaker A: Well, it's take. Take the problem and turn it into an opportunity is the philosophy. Yeah.

Speaker B: Uh, 100%. 100%.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker B: And I think that every opportunity, there's a way to turn it into a plus for you. You just said gambling, and that very well may be true. I mean, my son, I know, loves betting on sports. I hate it, but I know he does, and. But I can promise you will change if it's, uh, if that's a problem that we end up running into, you best believe we'll change. So. Yeah, to be a part of it.

Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah, there's.

Speaker B: It goes back to that, like, what are your priorities and who do you have? Who are you? Like, who's your teammates? Is your teammate just focused on the invoice prices or the whatever? Or do you have a teammate that you trust in as much as your general manager that can lead you down the right marketing path, per se? Like, I, uh. I, uh, Literally, I think I've got seven restaurants that still that are on my marketing side of things that I work with religiously. And technically, they. Some of them, a couple of them here locally are my. What you would call my competitor. But, dude, I'm interested in their growth and they know that, you know, without somebody helping them with marketing is just not their strong point. So they need help with that to grow what they're doing.

Speaker A: Well, uh, you know, Rising Tide lifts all boats, too. You want all the. You Know, you want the good operators that are trying to grow and evolve and adapt to be successful, because it's bringing people down to that part of town and, you know, need, uh, more than, you know, you need other. You need options, and you want people down there a lot. And today they go here, and next day they go there or whatever. But, uh, well, I mean, it's.

Speaker B: It's that. And like, what organizations are you a part of? What. What charities are you kind of working with? What. What city organizations are you on board with? Like, are you going to the library and. And doing an event there, you know, where you're showcasing your product? All these things matter. And. And I think so little of us put priority on that instead of, you know, when we should do. But you're right. A rising boat lives all. I mean, rising tide lifts all boats. And. And for me, I. I truly do want the success of our town and. And surrounding towns, for that matter. I mean, but I want the success for your customers in North Carolina the same way. What I don't want to see successful is I'm, um. I'm not as a restaurant owner. I want to see, you know, the general public, frequent independence that is the driving heartbeat of your community is the guy that your daughter went to work for and the ice cream shop, most likely that y' all went and ate at. And, uh, we, as we as independents have a. Have an obligation to help each other everywhere we can, because we are a family. Even the ones I haven't met that you are in North Carolina with, if me. And if I ever came up there and we went out to eat, me and that person that owns that would connect and be as close as anybody else.

Speaker A: Well, you know, I do. I believe that strongly. And all the money you. You spend at your local independent restaurant, it stays local, you know.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: And it. And those restaurant owners always are investing so much time and energy and money back into those communities, and they are what makes communities unique and special. And, uh, I, you know, coincidentally, that's what's. One of my first episodes was with Scott Maitland at Top of the Hill Restaurant Brewery up in chapel hill in 2010. I'll never forget one of the things he said, because I was asking about how do you compete with chains? By the way, this dude dropped out of law school because he heard that TGI Fridays was coming into the. Literally, like, at the crossroads in the middle of downtown Chapel Hill, the best restaurant location, and he heard a TGI Fridays was coming in there. He's like, I'm not Letting. Yeah, let the chain come Downtown Chapel. I'm not kidding. He literally dropped out of law school and figured out and never had a restaurant and figured out how to fund and start and build Chop Top of the Hill Restaurant and Brewery back in like 95. I mean, it's like 30 years old now. 95, 96. And, uh. But he told me, he said, you know, the thing that chains don't have, which is their Achilles heel, they have all these economies of scale and everything else, but what they don't have is the local intimate knowledge of the community. And they can't scale that and they can't replicate that. And it was a really funny story because here we are in Chapel Hill and Michael Jordan had has restaurant called Michael Jordan's. And you know, it started in Chicago, but they were gonna. They opened their Chapel Hill location and he was like, crap, this is gonna be a problem. Yeah, it's like where everybody goes before the big games and after. And he's like, but you know what they came in with, like, you know, this is back in like the early 2000s, like $30 plates of like, rabbit meat. And it's not what, you know, I mean, here Scott was saying, he's like, I know people that, like, had to shoot rabbits to eat still that, you know, like, when they were growing up, they're like, that's not an exotic animal. It might be to people in Chicago, but here, like, that's not exotic. And, you know, anyway, so it failed. Like, it didn't make it. Michael Jordan's in freaking Chapel Hill did not make it. Didn't have that local, intimate knowledge. And so that's a, that's a big thing to lean into. And it's a lot of the stuff you've talked about today with the marketing and, and, you know, social media and just really understanding the. And the local organizations, you've got that advantage as an independent owner. So just, just lean into it because, uh, a chain just can't and won't be able to replicate that.

Speaker B: You know, I'll say this. My restaurant is at this point, and I'm m on Knock on Wood is successful and probably a kind uh, of staple in the community at this point. But it takes a lot of love. I mean, there is a lot of it that, you know, no matter how good you are, Gordon Ramsay, maybe he's got the best food in the world, right? But he's got to be lucky, you know, in a lot of his things and get the right breaks happen to you. But a lot of Us just don't try to make our own breaks. And they think that. They think that, um, if you. I just. If I could reiterate this, and I don't mean to harp on it, but if you do not understand your demographic of who is in your town and who you are trying to target, then you are making a big mistake. And. And I cannot sell at my restaurant. I cannot go out and sell rabbit. Right. Like, that is not going to be successful. We have had. I, uh, have to lean into what the community here understands. They understand fettuccine Alfredo. They understand chicken parmesan. And so when I start going in these tangents of making these crazy Italian dishes that are all. That's not successful. The more ingredients here in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, that you add to a dish, the less that's going to be ordered. So what is my top seller? It's fettuccine Alfredo with chicken. It's, you know, it's just simplified things that are comfort foods to the public. And. And if you. That doesn't mean you can't be fashion it and you can't make great recipes and. And introduce new things, but you have to be realistic about what your community is and go from there. And we, Our college campus thinks cavatop vodka pasta with cavatappi noodles is the greatest thing ever. We sell it. It's almost egregious how much of that stuff we sell. And I will not change that. I'm not trying to battle them. I'm trying to move the boat with them. So focusing on what? Like you're, you know, Michael Jordan came in too big to fail, right? Well, he did fail. And. And you can't. If you don't understand your audience, you are. You are in a world of hurt.

Speaker A: You've got to. Yeah, for sure. For sure. Well, man, this is awesome, Christian. I've, uh, got. You know, I've never been to Tuscaloosa, so this is another reason I've always wanted to get down there. I need to get down there and hang out with you sometime, man. This has been such an awesome conversation, and I'm so glad we.

Speaker B: You can come over and eat a girl dinner with us and then walk across the street and go get some fancy cocktails from, uh, from Hunter.

Speaker A: Yeah, no, I'm gonna get into some of that fettuccine Alfredo, man. I like. I like. I like it simple, too, dude. Well, thank you. And. And I will. I mean, I have to tip my hat to, uh, you know, for those of you listening and Benny Keith is not in every state, but in a lot of states now. Um, I want to get connected with Keith. I wrote his name down, Keith Swan. But Benny Keith is a great, uh, distributor who's very, uh, very customer focused and understands the importance of building a person to person, human to human, eye contact, handshake relationship, and listening to. And I saw it yesterday, I saw it in action. Listening to customers and helping customers and that, you know, so I tip my hat. That's, that's, that's a important way to serve restaurant customers, particularly the independents, as y' all do so many of.

Speaker B: So you what, it would be probably a great podcast for you, you know, to have Keith come on and, and talk to him about the distributor side of things, because I think it's an interesting misconception of what, you know, distributors are dealing with and how they work and operate. Uh, I think they, most restaurant owners think they're just trying to gouge every customer they can, and it's really not the case. But you'd be really surprised at, at how the buying and the freight and the manufacturers themselves control your cost and not the distributor level. It's really shocking.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, it would be, uh, it would be. We've actually had, uh, That's a good idea. I did have Sue Strong come on here, told her story, which was awesome. I mean, her whole, uh, restaurant industry in her years doing that and everything. She's amazing. So. Well, actually, I think I will meet him because I'm going to some, uh, event, a Benny Keith event here in Charlotte on July 8th.

Speaker B: Yeah, you'll meet him.

Speaker A: So I'm sure he'll be there. Okay, cool. Christian, thank you. Thank you all. For those of you listening, watching, you're. We appreciate you. And as I've been saying, I'm trying to get better. Christian touched on this. Like, we got to get ratings, right? That we want. So give us, if you're on, uh, Spotify or if you're on Apple podcasts, give us a five star rating. If you throw a comment in there, it helps more. These algorithms, you know, they're looking for, they're looking for engagement. And the more engagement they see, the more they're going to put this in front of other people. So if you think this is good content and other restaurant owners should hear it, then, then give us that rating and it'll get, it'll get it in front of more people and you do the same. Christian, make sure to go in and I will. Wherever you listen, give us a, give us a comment rating and everything else. So, uh, but thank you, man. I really appreciate this. It's incredibly incred. Incredibly valuable hour and 20 minutes of content for these folks to listen to. So I really do appreciate you taking the time.

Speaker B: Yeah. And real quick, just as in ending, if anybody wants to expand on it, I'm more than happy to chat with anybody of your listeners. If they want to reach out via email on our website, uh, we can connect and I can kind of try to help give you pointed, you know, advice as best I can, if that's even of interest to people. So they're more than happy to do that. And I look forward to, you know, seeing more of your content, too.

Speaker A: What? Uh, so tell them the URL for the website.

Speaker B: Well, it's sugoitalianrestaurant.com or they can just email sugoitalianrestaurantgmail.com. s u d O S U G O yeah. Okay.

Speaker A: Cool. All right, man, that's a wrap, y'. All. Appreciate y'.

Speaker B: All.

Speaker A: More episodes coming soon. We will see you.