Lessons on Leadership, Growth and the Exit: Darren Spicer of 110 Ventures

Speaker A: Coming up, I've got a really great combo episode of Seven Quotes with that spans into hospitality and our runningrestaurants.com audience. My guest is Darren Spicer of 110 Ventures. And Darren had a lot to share of his journey in growing a drive thru coffee shop business and then exiting to Dutch Bros. And now works with several of his own companies as well as helping many other entrepreneurs. We talked about developing young leaders, working hard, sports life lessons, being a servant leader. We talked about book recommendations and a whole lot more. So lots of great takeaways for you. Stay tuned. Hey, running restaurants listeners, it's Jamie here with a quick word about a service that can truly elevate your restaurant experience. Service with Style. We all know happy customers mean a, uh, thriving business, but how do you ensure every guest walks out with a smile? Service with Style provides the intel you need. Their team of highly trained secret shoppers. Not just random people off the street. They go undercover as real patrons, evaluating every aspect of your guest experience, from the initial greeting to food quality and cleanliness. Their detailed reports pinpoint your strengths and opportunities for improvement. You'll also discover which employees are truly shining stars. Going above and beyond for your guest with Service with Style, you can understand the guest experience from top to bottom and take action to turn good reviews into phenomenal ones. As a running Restaurants listener, you get special 10% discount. Just visit ServiceWithStyle.com running restaurants for all the details. Again, it's ServiceWithStyle.com running restaurants that service with style because happy customers mean good business all. Uh, right folks, welcome to another episode of 7 Quotes with the podcast where we explore the words that shape extraordinary leaders and the stories behind them. I'm your host, Jamie Oikle of runningrestaurants.com and today's guest is Darren Spicer of 110 Ventures. Darren is an entrepreneur, founder, investor and leadership strategist. Darren founded Clutch Coffee bar and grew it into one of the fastest growing drive thru coffee brands before its acquisition by Des Rose. And, um, I'm sure we'll talk about that. So Darren, um, has continued to help founders and organizations build strong cultures, develop exceptional leaders and create businesses that last. So we're going to talk through seven meaningful quotes that he's handpicked. Ah. Those are going to share lessons that have shaped leadership, influence, difficult decisions and so forth. So. All right, Darren, welcome, man. A lot of background there. What might I missed? What's your main focus these days?

Speaker B: Yeah, no, you nailed it. Um, so in January, uh, Clutch was acquired by Dutch Bros. Um, which was kind of a full circle moment for me. I uh, had worked at Dutch Bros when I was younger and had aspirations of franchising. Um, that model changed and so then I branched off and started my own and so kind of a, kind of a coming home of sorts. Um, and now I do a lot of business consulting, helping other drive through coffee brands, um, other restaurant brands. Just um, helping them through all the fun pain points of being small or medium sized and looking to scale.

Speaker A: How old do you think you were when you initially worked uh, with Dutch Bro?

Speaker B: Uh, I started there when I was 18 years old. Um, and I worked there through college and then I went and got an adult job. Uh, and uh, something kept pulling me back to the industry and wanting to do that. So I went back in my mid-20s in an effort to franchise.

Speaker A: Gotcha. Yeah. Just before we started recording I told him we just got a Dutchboro location where I am outside of Orlando, Florida and, and it was my first exposure to the brand but man, when it hit people were like, oh, we're excited, we're excited about it. I mean they have a following. They have a cult following.

Speaker B: Yeah, they really do. Yeah. Uh, the culture is ah, is a gold standard I think. Uh, and when we think about quick service restaurant or quick service retail, I think Dutch Bros and, and Chick Fil A have really paved the way on that. Um, so yes, it is very much a cult following in a, in a healthy way. Um, and, and uh, they have a lot of support so it you know, naturally makes sense for them to continue to, to expand off of that and grab companies like ours.

Speaker A: Yeah, great, great. We uh, oddly enough we, we have a Chick Fil A and then Dutch Bros is like right, they're like right near each other. So that makes sense. But it just made me think about that. All right, 20 year old Darren. Advice for current year old Darren. What would that dude say? You could go back.

Speaker B: Oh man. For the 20 year old version of myself, I actually wish I'd worked harder when I was 20. I got by on, on whatever talent level I had. So year old version would be like, hey, apply yourself some more and see what you can do. That that switch didn't really flip until like my mid-20s I would say.

Speaker A: Yeah, that's fun. And I want to clarify, I think I saw on your website, but when you talk about 110 ventures, it's that idea of 110%. Right. I mean what's the, what's the foundation there?

Speaker B: Yeah, I mean you kind of Nailed it. Right. Which is like, I firmly believe any brands or people that we help, they're already putting in 100 of the effort. Right. And then we are that hopefully that extra 10%, that really helps to take them to the, to the next level. So, um, it's acknowledging and giving credit that people are putting in so much time and energy and they're giving, you know, all of that and we want to take you to that next level.

Speaker A: Yeah. Well, we are going to start off with some, um, quotes in the sports realm, and both of these I love. So let me pull up the first one if you could read it for folks.

Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. Um, a lot of people say they want to be great, but they're not willing to make the sacrifices necessary to achieve greatness. And that is, uh, from the late Kobe Bryant.

Speaker A: Yeah, listen, I just read just, just like two or three days ago, I saw a video of him speaking, and it was. Wasn't this exact quote, but it was very similar. He's in a school setting giving, uh, kind of a, you know, pep speech to, to young athletes and so forth. His, his mentality, if you've ever read or watched his stuff, it's phenomenal. You obvious a big fan. What is this? What do you take away?

Speaker B: Um, no, I mean, I think people talk about wanting to achieve certain things, but it's the action and, or the sacrifice to do that. Right. So there's some really cool clips where he talks about his work ethic and getting in the gym and, you know, how some players, you know, have a workout each day. The, the really good ones might do two a day. But then he starts to break down and say, hey, if I get up and I get my first one in from 4 to 6am and then I recover and then I come back again, uh, from 8 to 10am and I get another one. And he kind of breaks this down. He's like, if I get three or four of those sessions in because I'm willing to make the sacrifice, I'm willing to put in the time. Over time, that gap continues to widen between him and the rest of the competition, and then they can't catch up in terms of the number of hours they're putting in on their skill or their craft. So, um, just that relentless effort, uh, and willingness to do those things. Right. It's hard to get up and, uh, roll out of bed and do those things early when you don't want to. Your body doesn't feel like it. But are you disciplined enough and committed enough to whatever you're trying to pursue.

Speaker A: Yeah, there's a. There's a saying that is like, um, a bad workout is better than no workout. Like, even if. Yeah, even if you don't feel like working out or going to practice or shoot hoops, just the act of doing it, getting started. Maybe you end up just doing a half hour. We're usually do an hour. But just the. The process of showing up, getting the work in, getting better. And his story is. Is legendary. I mean, if you. If you haven't seen his clips, you got to go find him on the web where he talks about stuff like this. He's, uh, a phenomenal work ethic, and everybody will echo that about him. And. And let's just stay right there because you. You stay. You stay with Kobe for quote, too. Um, so let's go there.

Speaker B: Yep. Um, says, I can't relate to lazy people. We don't speak the same language. I don't understand you, and I don't want to understand you. That might sound a little harsh, uh, but I think at the end of the day, it's just being allergic to average and, um, not relating to people who want to just do the bare minimum or who are just say, I don't want to do this. It takes too much effort. I'm wired very much the opposite way, which is how can I put in every ounce of effort into that? And I think Kobe emulated that a lot of, um, in terms of just the work ethic. I mean, there's stories about when he was on the Olympic team, and, you know, guys, they're out. I think they were playing a game in Vegas maybe, and, you know, guys go out afterwards, they go to the club, and they're coming back home at like 3, 3:30 in the morning, and they pass Kobe in the hall, and Kobe didn't go out, and he's going down to the gym to go get a lift in, and they're like, oh, okay, this is different. You know?

Speaker A: Absolutely. You know, his. His story is unfortunate, has such a tragic ending, uh, with the. With the family and so forth. And we know we lost him too soon, and I think he would have done a lot of. Continue to do a lot of great things along the way. So it. So it is a. It is a telling story about, uh, yeah, take advantage of what you have for. For one thing, but I want to go to your growth stage. You obviously started with one location because everybody does. And then you went to two and three. What was harder between location one and location five and location 20 et cetera yeah.

Speaker B: So the first two we had open within a month of each other. It was a two pack, a two unit deal that got us on the board. Um, and so, you know, you never know. Like that very first one, right? You think you put in all the effort, all the energy, you do all the right things, but then you don't really know until game day shows up of like, is the community going to show up? Right. Were your ads effective? Um, all the things that you've been working towards. So that was more nervousness and exciting, um, and getting the first couple going. You know, we had to, um, One of my other co founders and I had to kind of do a divide and conquer where we each oversaw one of the locations to kind of get going. Um, so that one was those two. I think they were three miles apart, pretty close together. Um, I would say the biggest growth thing was going into new markets when we went from like, say five to 10 locations and going into new areas that hadn't had a chance to experience clutch. And you're kind of starting at square one in terms of brand awareness. Um, and, you know, we know that once we got people to visit, we had a really high retention rate, but we got to drive the horses to the water initially. So, um, learned a lot on the marketing side and, uh, especially on the guerrilla marketing side and just getting into the community, um, proactively and before we open to spread the word.

Speaker A: I'm glad you mentioned that because I want to stick right there for a second. That window of opening is a delicate one. Right? You just talked about it. You hope they show up. You got to, you got to do guerrilla stuff, especially. I'm sure in your space. You did that and it makes sense. But, but it's nerve wracking that, that first part, like, how do you give a good experience to those first round of customers? How do you encourage loyal, not loyalty right away, but. But a repeat visit right away? Like, how can you capture those people? Well, the first time?

Speaker B: Yeah. Um, I think it's just being obsessed with customer service and obsessed with the experience. Um, you know, we train our crews like the. The customer is not an interruption of your work. They are your work.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker B: That is what we're here to do, to serve others. Um, so there's a book called Positively Outrageous Service that I'd highly recommend reading if anyone hasn't. Um, and it's an incredible collection of real world examples of where, you know, if you think about a, uh, situation in an airport or in a restaurant or something where someone Went above and beyond to make that experience memorable. Um, that's a huge part of it for us, right? We obviously believe in having an incredibly high quality, uh, of product. And then speed is really huge, especially in the drive through setting. But making that face to face interaction, right, we're taking orders outside face to face on an iPad, um, sending that in and just really trying to build that relationship. Um, acknowledging kids and pets and just making it an immersive experience. Um, so being really, uh, intentional on training, I think is a big piece of it too.

Speaker A: One thing that I like about your potential model, and we had similar ones open up nearby us, it almost lends itself very well to capturing customer data right away. Like, hey, is it your first time here? Let me get your mobile number so I can have your name so I can make your order. And it's almost a natural order, order flow. Whereas a lot of businesses don't take advantage of that. So you probably have a lot to about that. But what, but what I wanted to also hint at is I'll go to a lot of businesses for the first time, a restaurant, uh, or any other businesses for the first time, and they don't capture my information on that first visit. I think it's a huge miss. Uh, I'm sure you think about this. I'm sure you have thoughts on it. What do you got?

Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, our goal on, like on a grand opening day, we would do free drinks all day. So for 12 hours we would serve about 2,500 free drinks. And our goal strategically was to make sure that we captured information or at least encourage people to sign up. Right? And so to your point, right, it's like, hey, our, our message, our talk track was like, hey, the drinks are all free today. Um, but if you want to sign up for loyalty and or download the uh, app, you can get a second drink on, uh, your next visit for free as well. Right? So now we're giving ourselves a second chance to win them over. It's a marketing function, right? It's a marketing cost. I'm not worried about the $50 cost on that drink. I'm worried about that customer acquisition cost. And we give ourselves chances to win with them. So, um, on a grand opening day, when you're serving those 2,500 free drinks, usually we strategically had already gotten at our peak, we were already getting a thousand loyalty members signed up for a specific location. So if we open our first one in Orlando, um, we are able to calibrate on the backside to be able to measure that we have that many new loyalty users and then on that grand opening day we're trying to get an additional 500 signed up for loyalty as well. And those are just kind of some goal and benchmarks there because now we can retarget, um, we can send out promotions. Right. We can really engage immediately, um, with people. So that was a big, big focal point.

Speaker A: Yeah, I'm glad, I'm glad you bring it up and I hope folks take it to heart. And it seems like a lot of my conversations recently on the Running Restaurants podcast and with seven quotes is about that ability to have the data and to not use Hope marketing but have, have, have your customer data to put out. Hey, we see you come on Fridays repeatedly. We're going to send you a message on Friday to come in for, for this or the weekend or we see you like you know, Tuesday afternoons with the family and to have the more data you have, whether it's SMS or email, uh, and so forth, you control the marketing. So please, if you're listening to this and you have a business, collect data, collect data. Don't rely on other resources. Have it, have it in house. So um, let's go to quote three, um, in the sports world, but also Mr. Famous on the shark, uh, Tank world. And he's all over the place. Mark Cuban, what do you got?

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, and this comes from his book of how to win at the sport of business. Um, but the quote is uh, it doesn't matter how many times you fail, you only have to be right once. His story is interesting because he was essentially broke a couple different times in his 20s. Right. And one by proxy of just business things not working out. One from uh, a trusted uh, not receptionist but a trusted assistant essentially like filtering m money out of the business. So um, but he just talks about hey, like you, you know, shoot the shot, encourages you to take the chances and um, you know, you only have to be right one time for it to be potentially life changing.

Speaker A: I uh, followed him kind of, you know, not closely just to know all his background but, but seeing him on the, on the show and then more so around the Mavericks, when he was involved with the Mavericks. Very outspoken about a lot, a lot of things. You see him all the time on little clips on the Internet giving business advice. Uh, so lots of good stuff from him. What else uh, have you pulled from uh, his background?

Speaker B: Um, I mean, yeah, he's very multifaceted. Um, I think he understands things at a macro level. Um, so for me with him it's uh, I think diversifying into different things, following things you're passionate about, but understanding like what is going to make your business actually tick. And then essentially part of his book too is like, like business is a 24, 7, 365 game, right? So if you're sleeping, uh, and I don't mean literally sleeping, but if you're not doing things or you're asleep at the wheel, other people are competitively out gaining you in some fashion. People are going to outwork you. So just really trying to hone in on that mindset of um, of really being committed to what you're doing and putting in the time and the effort, um, to put your company at an advantage.

Speaker A: Excellent. Now I want to go to mindset for a second. Uh, when you are in the negotiation phase of selling your brand to another, another big brand, it's probably emotional at some point. Like what surprised you in that whole, that whole process?

Speaker B: Um, there's lots of, lots of layers to it, so both internally and externally. So it was interesting to kind of navigate all of those between not just the external party, but also internal, uh, stakeholders of what we were doing. Um, I think the thing I learned the most is uh, as bigger companies grow, right, as the big fish eat the little fish, um, real estate is at the core of everything, right? And whether they, whether it's the quality of the site or the control of the site, that's really what we're, what we're talking about in terms of uh, you know, units being able to be opened by, by any brand. So having uh, being disciplined and making good choices on those real, uh, estate, uh, locations can really be a positive or it can be a, you know, a, uh, negative if you don't make quality decisions in the long run.

Speaker A: On that, I have found it interesting the um, there's a brand near us, um, I'm sure you're familiar with. Seven brews opened up really close to, really close to uh, the Dutch Bro location. And they opened at the same time. It was really weird. Like, like I'm sure they didn't talk to each other and I'm sure it was coincidence, but within a half a mile each other they opened up and they open up fast because it's not like it's container but it's like the construction of it is very, not simple but like it's fast and it's modular. Like is that, is that a really an advantage in the business?

Speaker B: Um, yeah. So seven brews doing modulars, that's their, that's their wheelhouse. Right now, um, Dutch Bros primarily is still doing stick built. Um, so I would say the advantage on a prefab, uh, cost wise, uh, I don't think there's as big of a delta as people might might think there is. Um, they, they pencil out similar unless you're really doing it at a large scale which to seven Bruce credit they are. Um, but speed is the biggest thing. Right. So you say hey we have 10 of these off site already ready to go. We can come in and drop one on once the site is ready to go. Um, that I think is a ah, is a pretty sizable advantage and I do think on the note of like Dutch Bro7 brew over the next decade. This is a Coke and Pepsi war. Those are the two brands in the, in the new wave coffee space that are going to go head to head.

Speaker A: Okay. Yeah, that seems okay. Okay. It's going to be interesting to see, see that play out. Let's uh, keep rolling. This, this guy is really good that you have. Coming up next, you got quote, uh, number four. Yeah.

Speaker B: Uh, from Simon Sinek. Leadership, uh, is not about being in charge, it's about taking care of those in your charge. Um, so to me this really centers and stems around servant leadership. Um, and it's not saying hey, I'm the boss, do this, do as I say, but leading by example and making sure that you're taking care of the people that are in your flock. Um, that to me is the, is the definition of servant leadership.

Speaker A: I um, I was trying to think of it. I just, I just turned my head to find it. But if for folks that are watching, I'll pull up one of his books, uh, Simon Sinek the the Infinite Game. And um, if you're reading it to find, it's a really good book by the way and it really talks about the long game, not short term decisions. Um, I, he, I think he has a lot of other content besides this and I see him speak all the time and I know one of your other quotes is, is from him as well. What um, what have you read from him? Where else have you seen him?

Speaker B: Yeah, no, I've read the book that you just shared which is, which is awesome. Um, he's, he's one that we would use a lot of uh, quotes or clips from to share with our team, with our leadership team internally at Clutch. Um, as we were trying to invest in really young leaders. Right. So people that are 17 to 25 that are either leading a store as an assistant manager, a store manager, regional manager. Um, so that was a big, big piece, um, of us just trying to teach them how to be a servant leader, um, how to, how to think and how to approach things, um, in general. And, uh, yeah, he's just, he has an incredible demeanor. I think his message always resonates, and he makes it simple to understand, which I think is big.

Speaker A: I'm glad you brought up the young leader side. That's definitely the space that you folks would be in. Um, how do you, how do you feel? What's your vibe about those, those young folks growing roles? What are you seeing? Because I know everyone says, oh, they're just attached to their phones. They don't care. Like, but I'm sure you're seeing different aspects of that because I, I, I see it out there. What do you think about young leaders?

Speaker B: I, I mean, I do think that a healthy majority are attached to their phones. And sometimes my wife might accuse me of being attached to my phone as well.

Speaker A: Yeah, we all are now. It's bad.

Speaker B: Yeah. No, I mean, I, to us, it was a, it's a responsibility to teach life skills and to be able to provide people with skills they'll take. You know, generally most of them, um, are going to go on and do other things. Well, they certainly are past clutch now because the brand has been acquired. But, like, you know, when we were open, it was, it was, hey, can we teach them skills so that when they go somewhere else, um, they have those life skills. We've given them the opportunity or armed them with the ability to go into a room and be able to talk to people. Right. To not have their head down and things, to be able to engage in a conversation. And one of my favorite success stories was we had an employee named Reece. And this was early on enough in the business that I was actually helping to do some of the training with him, uh, where we would train him on the window and the window position, where you are fully engaged with the customer. So not Starbucks, where they open the window, take your money, close the window, turn their back. This is like, fully present. We're engaging in a conversation. And the first day of training, he was, it was so, so rough. Like, I mean, he was, you know, metaphorically throwing up on himself and just like in a conversation. And I'm like, oh, this is going to be, this is going to be a tall task. And fast forward to the, I mean, over the next three years, he became one of our best employees. Could have a conversation with anybody. Right. Found his confidence, um, which was just genuine.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker B: And people loved him and so um, those are like the wins that you kind of see behind the scenes. And you're like, man, like, this is, this is cool. This is something he'll have with him for the rest of his life.

Speaker A: Yeah, I love that because, you know, we talked before. You have younger kids? I have older. We're 21, 19 and 13. And so. And um, yeah, teaching young folks confidence, the ability to not look down when they're talking to adults, to look up, face, handshake, like that stuff is bigger than you think. It doesn't happen naturally. So learning that on the job sometimes is their first exposure to it. Giving them that experience, uh, is great. And the story you shared is, is, is really, is really perfect. You know, teaching them how to be confident and teach those, teach those uh, those life skills. You know, you're doing a bunch of other stuff as well. We don't have to just talk about Clutch. What are some of the other businesses you're involved with investing in? What's going on?

Speaker B: Yeah, um, yeah, my wife would say too, too many things. Uh, but uh, let's see. So we created our own energy drink when we had Clutch to get vertically integrated. Um, we carved that out of the deal with Dutch Bros. So um, I still own that brand. Big Drink Energy. PPE is the name of it. Um, so now that's a B2B connection where we're helping other restaurants drive through coffee places that might be using, you know, a really expensive product like Red Bull. No shade to Red Bull. Um, but uh, but helping them become more efficient on the cost of good side with a great product, um, that we spent a year developing, um, to get to market. So we've got that, uh, I've got a fun passion project of a coffee infused barbecue rub. So if you grill or cook at all, uh, send me your, uh, send me your address. Uh, I'll mail you some, uh, it's called cowboy mud cowboymudrub.com and really cool. And we've got a, uh, we have an original, a spicy and a maple bourbon flavor on that. Um, which is, which is really fun. My kids like the maple bourbon on chicken. It kind of tastes like chicken and waffles without the guilt. Um, so we've got that going. Um, and then yeah, have invested in some other brands um, that I believe in. Take um, five oil change, uh, is growing and um, I think that's going to be a positive thing. Um, and then I also have a remote staffing agency that came out of my time at Klutch where um, when we left. I had three remote assistants in the Philippines for the last five years. Um, incredible. Like, unbelievable. So I got hit up by business contacts, people in the, in the business world saying, hey, like, who do you have run your customer service, right? Or who's your graphic designer that you're using overseas? And I kept connecting those and I finally that kind of. The light bulb popped and I'm like, why don't. I can facilitate this? Why don't we, you know, we know where to go find great talent. So it's called time back talent. Um, we've got about a dozen clients right now. Everything from placing executive assistants or graphic designers to. We work with mortgage lenders who have, um, and these are highly skilled people who are basically are their loan processors now for 90% less than what they might be paying, uh, domestically. So kind of wild.

Speaker A: Okay, yeah, let's go back to your wife for a second. She's probably saying, what are you doing? So how do you put a filter on how. What, you know, how do you say no to opportunities? Because I'm sure they keep coming at you.

Speaker B: Yeah, um, good question. I think I've kind of hit the upper cusp of like, okay, hey, how are you going to manage all these different things, right? So part of it involves being really organized. I mean, it's 8, uh, am over here Monday morning right now. And at 6:00 clock this morning, I had my Monday morning kickoff with my personal, uh, remote assistant, uh, who basically helps me stay, uh, organized on all the different things, right? So we use a trello board and we have a vertical for every brand. And it's like, okay, what are the action items this week? Who's doing what? What do we need to do? So I think staying organized and consistent. Um, and then the other big thing is learning how to delegate. And you know, uh, as a founder, it's not always the easiest thing, but if you want to, if you want to grow farther, you've got to be able to do it with people and trust them.

Speaker A: Yeah, good. Okay. Yeah, that's great. Um, uh, let's go, let's keep rolling. Quote 5. Let's go back to, uh, Simon, what do you got?

Speaker B: Yeah, great, great leaders eat last. Um, and so I think, uh, it's, it's allowing other people to, to go first in so many different ways. Right? And worrying about yourself last. I, I think about it even, like when I go to my wife's family reunion every summer, um, and it's a week long with like 40 people, right? Oh, man, it's it's making sure everyone's taken care of before yourself. Right. Everybody has their food first. Uh, you're. You're taking care of others before yourself. To me, that those actions reflect the notion of servant leadership. Um, so I think Simon just puts it very, very succinctly. And we would talk about that for our managers, where it's like, hey, like, you take care of your people first, make sure they're taken care of. Right. And then you are last. And just trying to wire them that way.

Speaker A: Excellent. I'm excited to go to this next one because I don't see many folks reference the author of this one. And I followed, uh, Gary. Gary Vee for a long, long time. So we'll talk about that in a second, but let's go ahead and read the quote and then we'll talk more.

Speaker B: Yeah. Uh, quotes from Gary V. And it says, stop hanging around people who don't want to win. Um, and this is so interesting because as we get older, I think you kind of identify, um, people around you that are high performers, people that you gravitate towards, and then other people that you might have had a really long friendship with and you still might have a friendship with, um, but they're not wired the same way, they're not driven in the same way. And, uh, or people who. A phrase that my wife and I will use. It's like people that want to, like, wallow in their own poo.

Speaker A: Right?

Speaker B: Where it's like, you know, well, this happened to me and this. And it's like, you can sit there and talk like that and like, yeah, it was probably an unfortunate sequence of events that happened, but what are you. What are you going to do about it? What's the next step? Um, so we, uh, think about that a lot where it's like, hey, surround yourself with people who want to win, because then that iron sharpens iron and you find out what you're capable of doing. You, uh, find out what boundaries you can push in terms of your own, you know, your own success.

Speaker A: Yeah. So for folks that don't know Gary Vayner Vaynerchuk, he is phenomenal and great in so many ways. He's easy to find, uh, because he's been on the web forever. And I remember seeing him speak at least 15, maybe even as far as 20 years ago, uh, before he was famous. And even then I said, holy crap, this guy. This guy tells it like it is. You know, like if you. If you're not sure and you need to be told some Something straight like that. He will tell it to you. And a lot of his videos will reference people that, oh, man, it's just not working out for me. You know, it's, uh, I'm too old to do this. And he. And he'll. He'll say straight up, he said, Listen, you're 50. So what? Let's go. Like, you're at the beginning. You could start now, in five years, be. Be on top. Like, no matter what it is, no matter where you are in your journey, like, stop forgetting that you can't do it. You can do it. People have done it. I've done it. His stories. His story is incredible. He started in the back of his dad's wine shop, you know, being the little guy, the retailer doing nothing. His friends are out partying. He's just working in the wine shop. And then he turned that into a YouTube wines, you know, wine video library. And then he was so good at making videos on YouTube that just opportunities probably hit him from every which way. And he's grown into so many other things. The only flaw, Gary, don't. Don't hate me for this. The only flaw is you're a Jets fan. It's bad. Very bad, very bad.

Speaker B: That's, uh, it's that it's bad, but it's also like, man, like, you appreciate the loyalty to, like, I'm a Dolphins fan, and it's just like, just misery city, uh, most of the time. But, you know, you stay. You stay loyal.

Speaker A: So, yeah, he does stay loyal, and maybe he will, in fact, be the owner of the jets one day, which I think is one of his visions. And maybe he can write right, the ship that, uh, they are struggling with so mightily. So I know you work with, um, speaking of athletes and football, I know you work with some student athletes, or at least I saw that somewhere. What do you do? What do you do in that regard?

Speaker B: So for the last four years, um, I have, uh, volunteered and then also sat on the board for. For the University of Oregon where I went to school. University, uh, of Oregon Student Athlete Mentor Program. Um, so basically helping student, uh, athletes pretty much in any facet of life that they need, you know, an assist with. So, um, I've had probably a dozen athletes over the last four years, ranging from football to beach volleyball. Actually, the beach volleyball1 literally three days ago. So she graduated. Uh, she's like, I think I want to work either in sports, or I wanted to get into sales, uh, or. Or both, maybe. So we tapped our alumni network, we opened some Doors. And she wanted to be. She's like, I want to work in sports, hopefully in sales in Los Angeles. I'm like, okay, that's a very, That's a very specific needle to thread. Um, but we got her off. We, she. And to her own credit for Interview, and we got her offers with the, with the LA Chargers and the LA Football Club in mls. So she just accepted an offer three days ago. And like, so just those kinds of things are just really rewarding. And so I've sat on that board for the last, um, several years and then just helping, helping student athletes, whether it's what they're doing in school, what they want to do after school, um, how can, you know, uh, as Ducks, uh, how can we keep the flock together and flying?

Speaker A: Yeah, that's great. I can tell you're a sports fan because I won't preview the next one, but the next quote is from a sports star as well. What is your background in sports? What is your level of passion for different teams?

Speaker B: Yep. Uh, so, so I definitely bleed green and yellow for the, for the Ducks. I still have season, uh, tickets for Oregon football. There you go. Um, I played basketball in college and then was invited to camp with Tampa Bay as a pitcher, uh, at the end of my college career. So, so those were kind of my two main, my two main sports. And then, um, have stayed, you know, connected to the, um, to the program in the sense of, uh, of the season tickets for football. Football. So.

Speaker A: Okay. Well, Oregon is very passionate about their sports there. I know you guys are trying to get the, get the football team back up to where everybody wants them to be. So it's a challenge in the day and with the marketplace we are in today. But, you know, here's what's interesting. All right, let's talk. We're going to talk about football. And so we're going to go to, to Ray Lewis here in a second. And he's from, he's from my alma mater, um, and I was there when he played and holy crap, a lot of people probably know him from Baltimore Ravens days and, and he's an animal. But my God, when he, he would play against Florida State, if you can find the clip somewhere, he literally just broke someone in half like that dude. That dude could play ball. So anyway, let me, let me go to Ray Lewis. I love that.

Speaker B: That was. That's your alma mater. I wasn't even. It, uh, wasn't even intended. So that's a bonus here. Um, so, yeah, the quote from, from Ray Lewis is that There are two things in your life that you can always control. Attitude and effort. Um, and that's just a personal mantra for me. I mean, I firmly believe that where anything else could fly at you, anything else could happen. But the two things that you are always in control of in any setting that you're in, whether it's professional, personal, anything in between, um, is your attitude and your effort, right? You control your attitude of how you react to things, how you respond, um, how you approach things, and then your effort. And, you know, Ray Lewis even takes that further, and he's like, effort is between you and you, right? No one else can take that away from you, right? If you apply yourself and you're giving everything that's yours to have forever, right? Um, it's not about your talent level. It's like, did you apply yourself and did you, you know, give it everything? So kind of feeds into the whole, like, on the 110, you know, 110 ventures, can we give 110% and, uh, and just give everything we have?

Speaker A: It's funny. Took the words out of my mouth. I was gonna say, if anybody played with 110 or more, it was. It was that gentleman right there. He played with a passion.

Speaker B: That it was.

Speaker A: And, you know, I did a lot of coaching for youths as my kids, you know, went up through. And this was one of the things we would always come back to that I would say, you know, you have little conversations with the kids. You know, what can you control? Can you control, you know, what the up says, what else happens? No, you can control your attitude, your effort, your hustle. Those are things that are in. In your control all the time. Like, all the time. You don't feel great. That's your choice. You can choose to feel better. You can choose to be happy about your life and your teammates. And so that's a big one. I do love that one. Um, we had a lot, so I won't go too much, but I will give you an opportunity. Is there any other great big life advice or business advice you've had from folks or a mentor that you want to. That you want to share?

Speaker B: Um, yeah, I think the thing I would probably say, in general, uh, for people that are considering, uh, pursuing something right, uh, is twofold. Like one, the time is now. Um, there's never kind of like having kids. There's never a perfect time. You gotta go. At certain point, you just gotta go. Um, and don't be, you know, don't be afraid to fail. Um, I do think, right, have A very. Have a very clear, uh, plan of what you want to do and how that is, how you're going to achieve that. Also have a plan B for when plan A hits the fan. Uh, because at some point, something will derail and can you be ready to navigate? Right. I mean, I think we had. We experienced that a lot with Clutch. Of, hey, it'll be something we, you know, we're going to work together perfectly in harmony, the three of us as co founders, and it's going to start this way, and then you get into it, and certain people are wired differently, and it wasn't for everybody. So, um, I think having your plans, but then also, like, the time is now to go, uh, to go do that. So if you've been thinking about it and you're just trying to talk yourself into it, like, get off the sidelines and get in the game, I mean, that was when we started Clutch. My biggest thing was, hey, if we do this and we fail, we'll fail fast, and I'll go back to doing medical device sales that I was doing previously. Um, but let's give ourselves a shot, right? And no one's ever going to judge you to say, oh, my gosh, I can't believe you had the audacity to take that risk. Right. If anything, it's like, man, that took some stones to do that. So.

Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah, well, thanks for that. But one of the things you do have to get past sometimes is you do feel like, oh, people are going to judge me. You know, people are going to say, well, you know what? You know what if it doesn't work out? You know, that negative mindset, uh, you know, people are going to think these things about me, but it's really not the case. Like, yeah, you're in your own head. Don't you feel that that's true?

Speaker B: No, for sure. And then that comes back to the attitude piece, right? If someone was to judge, you'd say, hey, you know what? Like, we gave it everything we had. You're. You're honest in the assessment, right? It's like, hey, uh, we thought we had an awesome idea. We put every ounce of effort into it. It didn't work out the way we wanted. Right. And that's okay, but we learned a lot from that. Like, you know, there's not winning and losing, there's winning and learning, and we learn from that, and that'll help us into the next. I mean, even. Even the things we learned from Clutch have already segued into starting time back, talent, and how I approach that and that in other businesses. So, like, it's, It's. It's compounding win.

Speaker A: Excellent. We hit a couple books along the conversation today. Are you reading anything now or anything else in your lives that you're like, hey, folks, you got to check this out?

Speaker B: Yeah. I really do think if you're in, um, honestly, if you're in any type of service business doesn't even have to be in, um, Quick Service retail, Quick Service Restaurant. But the book Positively Outrageous Service is an incredible one. Uh, and I really recommend that to have the right frame, ah, of mind both as an employee or as a leader and as a manager, um, to really empower people to. At the end of the day, we are all human. We crave the interaction. Right. I don't think AI or anything will ever replace that. So if you have that skill set, you can be so successful in so many different ways.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Hit, um, them with where to find you socials. You can mention the different business websites. Again, hit them with everything.

Speaker B: Yeah. Um, so I kind of put everything under one umbrella because it was a little bit all over the map. So it's, uh, 110-so-110-Ventures.

Speaker A: Com.

Speaker B: Um, and that kind of encompasses, uh, all the things that I'm, um, that I'm doing or that I'm involved in right now. Um, it can reach out directly through the website for, um, business coaching, consulting or, uh, or speaking opportunities. And um, yeah, we're, we're enjoying the next chapter and seeing what happens.

Speaker A: Awesome. Awesome. Yeah, we did, man. We, we. We. We covered a super lot. So, uh, folks, folks, let me hit you with this stuff. All right? That was been Darren from 110 Ventures. You can find him@110ventures.com. Um, I'm sure he's on socials as well. Uh, we will be releasing this on both of our podcasts because it overlaps between hospitality and life and leadership. So, so make sure you check out sevenquotes.com as well as running restaurants.com, uh, for more great marketing leadership, uh, Service and Tech, that is@runningrestaurants.com in the meantime, please do me a favor. Take two seconds and just hit a like button or a rate or review or subscribe wherever you happen to be listening or watching. That would be a really big favor and I would appreciate it. Uh, if you could do that, that'd be great. Folks, we will see you next time. Thanks, Darren.

Speaker B: Thank you.

Speaker A: Hey, running Restaurant listeners, it's Jamie here with a quick message for you. Listen, what would it feel like to lower your operating costs, double your sales, lower staff turnover, create raving fans, and design a menu that literally prints money? The Restaurant Rockstars Academy online training system will teach you and your staff to rock your restaurant and transform your business. Head over to restaurantformula.com it'll take you less than five minutes to get started. That's restaurantformula.com.