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Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning. The breakfast Club Morning.

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Speaker 2: Everybody is the j n V. Just hilarious, charlamage the guy.

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Speaker 2: We are the breakfast Club. We got a special guest

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Speaker 2: in the buildings.

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Speaker 3: Are you waiting to get your ass kicked? Let's go,

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Speaker 3: let's go red Lobster. Okay, what else, let's go, Let's go. Okay,

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Speaker 3: here come to punch.

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Speaker 2: Adam a lookin.

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Speaker 1: Hey, what did he get? An eight out of ten? Man?

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Speaker 1: Almost got it? Almost got it.

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Speaker 4: You're very close man. That's a that's a good that's

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Speaker 4: a good effort are doing.

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Speaker 1: Can we give our brother a water? Please? Please? Regular

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Speaker 1: get a big mac?

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Speaker 3: You got a mouthful of you know, it's crazy, Demola.

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Speaker 3: We interview a lot of people, and people always ask,

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Speaker 3: you know, who do you want to interview?

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Speaker 1: And I never know the answer.

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Speaker 3: But then I see certain people on the schedule and

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Speaker 3: I'm like, damn, I would like to talk to this guy.

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Speaker 1: And when I saw your name on the schedule, I

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Speaker 1: was like, see you alread lost. Yes, I'd like to

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Speaker 1: talk to him. Ye, you guys are doing amazing things.

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Speaker 2: It's gonna be so let's start from the beginning.

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Speaker 5: How did you get into fool because you just weren't

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Speaker 5: the CEO of a lapster, you with CEO of PF Chang.

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Speaker 5: So how did you get your start into this restaurant business.

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Speaker 1: And you're only thirty six?

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Speaker 3: Yeah?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, look, I mean really, I started by waiting

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Speaker 4: tables when I was young, when I was in high school.

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Speaker 4: And you're from I'm from I'm Nigerian originally. I went

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Speaker 4: to high school in Maryland. Okay, So it's nice, yeah,

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Speaker 4: you know, doing the waiter slash runner thing in high school.

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Speaker 4: But in this current track, you know, I started working

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Speaker 4: in finance when I was in college. So I started

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Speaker 4: interning at Goldman Sacks when I was nineteen, so seventeen

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Speaker 4: years ago. Wow, So I got my first internship at Goldman.

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Speaker 4: I was at Brown playing football and worked at Goldman

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Speaker 4: for four years, and then worked at a private equity

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Speaker 4: firm called TPG, and then went to business school and

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Speaker 4: then worked at a hedge fund here in New York.

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Speaker 4: The reason I got into restaurants because I did a

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Speaker 4: restaurant deal. We bought PF. Chang's in twenty nineteen. I

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Speaker 4: worked for John Paulson, who's a famous billionaire investor in

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Speaker 4: New York This firm is called Pulson and Company. So

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Speaker 4: I was working at a hedge fund and we do

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Speaker 4: a lot of things. The hedge fund's big, it's you know,

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Speaker 4: billions of dollars and we do a lot of different things.

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Speaker 4: But one of the things that we did that I

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Speaker 4: suggested was to buy PF. Chanks was up for sale.

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Speaker 4: So I pitched it to the firm. They agreed, but

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Speaker 4: it was I led the deal. This is twenty nineteen now,

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Speaker 4: so it was up for sale. You know, I thought

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Speaker 4: it was an interesting thing, good brand, great great history,

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Speaker 4: great product. I thought we could do a lot of

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Speaker 4: new things with it. We could ad delivery, we could

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Speaker 4: remodel the restaurants, we could make it more.

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Speaker 1: Interesting, it make it more relevant, cool, and it was

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Speaker 1: all going pretty well.

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Speaker 4: And then COVID hit right in twenty twenty, so my

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Speaker 4: big restaurant dealed. You know, we put hundreds of millions

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Speaker 4: of dollars into it, and it went south during COVID,

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Speaker 4: like like everything else did.

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Speaker 1: All the restaurants were closed.

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Speaker 2: So just curious how much was Pfchang selling for it

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Speaker 2: back then?

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Speaker 4: You know, we never released it, but there's an article

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Speaker 4: that quotes something around seven hundred million.

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Speaker 1: It's in the in the ballpark. So they didn't make

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Speaker 1: their money back clearly though, No we didn't. But that's

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Speaker 1: the thing. I had to go save it.

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Speaker 4: So then in COVID, it looked it looked like it

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Speaker 4: looked like we weren't gonna It looked like a bad deal.

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Speaker 4: And it was my deal, so you know, that's that's

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Speaker 4: on me, right, So it wasn't looking good. We lost

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Speaker 4: the CEO during COVID, and I had to go step

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Speaker 4: into sort of rescue the situation. Now, the year before that,

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Speaker 4: I was chief strategy officer, so I'd been there every week.

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Speaker 4: I was flying to Scotts salehere the company is headquartered.

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Speaker 4: I was flying back to New York. So I was

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Speaker 4: running the company kind of as chief strategy officer. And

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Speaker 4: then I was at the Hedge Fund. And then when

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Speaker 4: COVID happened, we lost the CEO, they asked me to

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Speaker 4: be CEO. So that's when I stepped in again because

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Speaker 4: it's my deal. I'm responsible for the outcome, right, So

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Speaker 4: I went in there to try to salvage things and

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Speaker 4: get us through COVID, which we did, and then then

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Speaker 4: we grew from there and ended up ended up being

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Speaker 4: a really good deal, but not without a lot of

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Speaker 4: you know, blood, sweat and tears for a few years

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Speaker 4: and getting through it.

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Speaker 1: So that was that that that ended up well.

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Speaker 2: So you took the salt and pepper prawns off the menu.

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Speaker 1: That was me right, I was gone by that. I

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Speaker 1: got so many questions.

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Speaker 3: Man number one, you know you said you guys want

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Speaker 3: to talk about you got to you said you you

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Speaker 3: started at nineteen doing what you was.

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Speaker 4: I got my first internship at Goldman Sachs, who put investment.

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Speaker 3: Who pushed those seeds in your mind at such a

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Speaker 3: young age to say this is what I want to

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Speaker 3: do at nineteen.

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Speaker 4: Years old, it's a good it's a good question. So

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Speaker 4: when I was even younger than that, when I was

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Speaker 4: in high school, I played football and I was trying

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Speaker 4: to go to a good school. But at the same

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Speaker 4: time I was trying to play football in college. Ended

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Speaker 4: up playing at Brown. But before that, I won a

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Speaker 4: speech contest. I had an English teacher that was like,

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Speaker 4: joined the speech and debate team. You talk too much,

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Speaker 4: I think, as what she was trying to say. But

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Speaker 4: I joined the speech and debate team and I won

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Speaker 4: a couple of things. I won the state championship for

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Speaker 4: debate that I want a speech contest, which paid me

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Speaker 4: ten thousand dollars. Right, it was a scholarship, and it

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Speaker 4: was the most money I'd ever had at that point.

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Speaker 4: I'm like, okay, we made it, right like, and I

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Speaker 4: decided I wanted to invest that money. That's why I

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Speaker 4: started with investing. So I got a bunch of money.

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Speaker 4: When I was in high school. I started wanting to invest.

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Speaker 4: What does that mean? Back then, everybody's doing real estate.

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Speaker 4: It's like, oh five oh six, everybody's trying to buy

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Speaker 4: real estate. So I thought I could do that. It

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Speaker 4: wasn't enough money, I learned quickly, but uh, but I

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Speaker 4: could buy stocks. So I got into stocks first, and

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Speaker 4: I opened a portfolio, and I just started. I read

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Speaker 4: there's a there's a website called the Motley Fool. I

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Speaker 4: think it's still around, but that's what I used to read.

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Speaker 4: I'd read anything about Buffett and I stop. You know,

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Speaker 4: you can buy stocks with a one hundred dollars. You

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Speaker 4: can buy stocks with ten thousand dollars. You buy stocks

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Speaker 4: of millions of dollars, right, it's just you buy more

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Speaker 4: of them. So I learned that and sort of trained

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Speaker 4: myself and asked a bunch of questions of people who

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Speaker 4: I knew that were doing that sort of thing. So

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Speaker 4: when I got to Brown, I joined the Investment Club.

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Speaker 4: That's it's an IV League school. There's a bunch of

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Speaker 4: people who you know, their parents work in that world,

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Speaker 4: they grew up around it. They know a lot, right,

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Speaker 4: So I learned a lot quickly, and then I applied

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Speaker 4: for Goldman, And you know, you got to pretend a

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Speaker 4: little bit, right, So I studied. I didn't come from

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Speaker 4: that world, but but I studied, and I showed up

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Speaker 4: to these interviews and I got the internship.

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Speaker 1: When you say pretend, what do you mean, Well, you don't.

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Speaker 1: You know? People know.

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Speaker 4: There's people that that are born and raised to do this,

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Speaker 4: and they're taught at a young age.

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Speaker 1: You know, I was teaching myself in high school and college.

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Speaker 4: When I say pretend, it's it's you study enough to

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Speaker 4: be dangerous to come into an interview and know what

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Speaker 4: you're talking. It's not faking it. It's teaching. It's it's

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Speaker 4: becoming the thing you need to be. It's becoming the

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Speaker 4: person you need to be. So pretend is the wrong word,

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Speaker 4: but it's becoming preparing.

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Speaker 1: You need to. You need to.

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Speaker 4: You need to recognize that you don't who you are

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Speaker 4: now is and who you're going to be ultimately, and

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Speaker 4: you need to take steps towards your goals. That's what

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Speaker 4: you know and that's how you are both. So what

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Speaker 4: you know is studying books, studying how to invest, studying stocks.

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Speaker 4: How you are is like working in gold massacces is hard.

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Speaker 4: It's you need discipline, you need work ethic, you need curiosity.

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Speaker 4: You need to be able to communicate you and be

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Speaker 4: able to defend your ideas and negotiate like all these things.

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Speaker 4: So there's skills that you have to develop in yourself

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Speaker 4: and there's knowledge you need to acquire both. And when

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Speaker 4: you do those things, you can be dangerous, right, you

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Speaker 4: can show up to something and stand up and get it,

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Speaker 4: make it happen.

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Speaker 3: So was it your parents like a bother figure, mother

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Speaker 3: figure like who pushed you in that direction?

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Speaker 6: Because even in high school you're talking about you invested

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Speaker 6: the money.

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Speaker 4: Like I was making Listen, it's six everybody was making money.

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Speaker 4: Stocks were just going up back then. I thought I

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Speaker 4: was a genius, but it was just the market.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, what were.

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Speaker 3: You doing as a child, Like, that's what I'm trying

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Speaker 3: to figure out. Like, like, I mean, so I was born.

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Speaker 4: In Nigeria and my dad's a doctor, he's a neurologist.

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Speaker 1: My family is all about academics.

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Speaker 4: So the idea to be like to try to achieve

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Speaker 4: has just been in my life since I was young.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely, it's you know, what are your grades?

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Speaker 4: You got six a'h one B? What's up with that B? Like,

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Speaker 4: let's get that to an A. That's that was kind

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Speaker 4: of my childhood. And then we were immigrants to America.

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Speaker 4: We moved when I was nine and coming here for us,

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Speaker 4: I mean, my parents did a lot to bring us here.

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Speaker 4: It's it's a very complicated, difficult process and it took years, right,

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Speaker 4: It's like five years for them to do that.

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Speaker 1: So I think you should be saying that at the time,

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Speaker 1: like this, well, you know.

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Speaker 4: It's it's there's different ways to immigrates.

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Speaker 1: This is skill.

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Speaker 4: This is the skill visa is what my dad used,

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Speaker 4: and it's it's a legitimate process. It just takes a

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Speaker 4: long time. Yeah, there's a bunch of tests, there's a

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Speaker 4: bunch of they.

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Speaker 3: Don't care you're a successful black man. You're too smart.

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Speaker 2: So how did you get to.

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Speaker 1: Red Red Lobster.

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Speaker 4: So, you know, the PF chains deal went well, and

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Speaker 4: you know, it won me some some plaudits in the

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Speaker 4: industry because it was difficult, right, and and we made

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Speaker 4: it happen. And then after that, I connected with the

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Speaker 4: folks who had lent money to Red Lobster before the

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Speaker 4: company went bankrupt, so they were in line to own

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Speaker 4: it coming out of bankruptcy.

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Speaker 1: It's a good group called Fortress.

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Speaker 4: And so they asked me first to consult to provide advice, like,

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Speaker 4: you know, you were just spent for years running a

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Speaker 4: business that was in distress similar to this, you know,

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Speaker 4: what do you think of this situation? So I was

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Speaker 4: advising them at first, and then it turned into they

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Speaker 4: asked me to come run it. Basically presented a plan.

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Speaker 4: They were like, well, like your plan police come executed

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Speaker 4: for us, right, So I took over a CEO coming

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Speaker 4: out of bankruptcy in September.

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Speaker 1: That's you's what we've been doing.

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Speaker 3: You know, when I first heard that story, I was

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Speaker 3: on the radio acting like I knew what I was

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Speaker 3: talking about, and I was just like, I know exactly

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Speaker 3: what Red Lobster should be doing.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, And I felt like Red Lobster.

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Speaker 3: Should you know, scale down from being a fine dining

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Speaker 3: establishment and be more like Chipotle, Like you could go

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Speaker 3: in there and you know you can get your lobster

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Speaker 3: insturment pasta right from the bar or whatever. The items

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Speaker 3: is just right there from the bar. Just make it

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Speaker 3: like a smaller, more Chipotle like establishment of the post

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Speaker 3: of buying dining restaurant.

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Speaker 1: Well, the thing about Chipotle is they have a well.

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Speaker 1: So your point about.

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Speaker 4: Being able to get food conveniently is an important one.

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Speaker 4: There should be options and there should be ways.

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Speaker 1: Where you get things you need quickly.

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Speaker 4: For example, our delivery business that should feel fast casualist

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Speaker 4: where you put it in order, it comes quickly, et cetera.

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Speaker 4: Are the way the company is set up has a

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Speaker 4: cost structure that you can run it. You can run

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Speaker 4: it like Chipole. For example, our restaurants they're nine to

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Speaker 4: ten thousand square feet pulleys a fifteen hundred square feet

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Speaker 4: maybe two thousand max. So you have a real estate

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Speaker 4: footprint that you couldn't run on Chipotle revenue per unit.

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Speaker 1: Right, you have to you have to do more.

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Speaker 4: The food we serve, we serve lobster and crab you

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Speaker 4: can't sell that at chipole price points because you pay

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Speaker 4: too much for those products. So there's there's structural differences

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Speaker 4: in the businesses that would prevent that. But that said,

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Speaker 4: some of the things Polly is good at you can

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Speaker 4: be better at, right, like delivery, digital, uh, you know,

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Speaker 4: speed of service. Those are things that people care about,

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Speaker 4: and definitely you can learn from it.

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Speaker 1: Hold on, Remember I started off by saying acting like

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Speaker 1: I knew it. I knew I said, acting like, so,

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Speaker 1: how do you say red lobster?

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Speaker 4: Now? Right? Well, so the thing is you have to

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Speaker 4: lean into what made it successful in the first place, right, Like,

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Speaker 4: what do people love about red lobster?

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Speaker 1: There's reason it is what it is. Biscuits biscuits for sure.

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Speaker 5: And I also think a lot of us from where

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Speaker 5: we grew up that was you know, we went for graduation,

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Speaker 5: we went for celebratory.

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Speaker 2: It felt like five stars, felt like five until you

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Speaker 2: start to make that's it.

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Speaker 5: But until all these other restaurants started popping up. Now,

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Speaker 5: you know, people look down on red Lobster when it

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Speaker 5: comes to celebratory. They'll go to you know, a PF Chanins,

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Speaker 5: They'll go to a towel, they'll go to an expensive

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Speaker 5: steakhouse because they don't look at Red Lobster as that

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Speaker 5: in I think, but you know it's good, but you know,

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Speaker 5: so how do you change that way of thinking?

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Speaker 1: So it used to be it used to be.

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Speaker 4: Red Lobster was the first company to take these high

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Speaker 4: end seafood products across the country. It was the first

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Speaker 4: place you could get lobster, get crap for a lot

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Speaker 4: of people, their first experience I went with to Red

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Speaker 4: Lobster in Springfield, Illinois when I used to live there

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Speaker 4: when I was nine or ten, and I remember that right,

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Speaker 4: So I think people a lot of people have these

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Speaker 4: memories after church on Sundays, you know, important dinners, graduation,

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Speaker 4: et cetera. The it's now you can get these products

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Speaker 4: in different places, but we're still the only company at

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Speaker 4: scale that serves lobster and crab. And by the way,

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Speaker 4: it's not Lobster and crab are wild caught products. You

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Speaker 4: can't form raise them, so they catch them on boats.

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Speaker 4: We buy twenty five percent of the lobster that's that's

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Speaker 4: caught on boats in North America.

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Speaker 1: We buy a quarter of it.

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Speaker 4: Wow, We buy a quarter of the crab that's caught

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Speaker 4: by virtue of our size and scale, we can get

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Speaker 4: the best product, which we do. So the lobster you

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Speaker 4: get a red lobster is as good as lobster.

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Speaker 1: You'll get anywhere.

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Speaker 4: But people don't know that at all, and so there's

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Speaker 4: a communication aspect to it that need to let people

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Speaker 4: know this is the best this is the best product

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Speaker 4: you can get for lobster, for crab. That's number one.

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Speaker 4: Number two, you need to give people a reason. You know,

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Speaker 4: you mentioned Chipotle. If we're not going to be prices

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Speaker 4: to Chiapole, then we need to offer something and that

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Speaker 4: Chipotle doesn't offer. And what that is is called service

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Speaker 4: and hospitality. Like you need to come in, you need

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Speaker 4: to feel like you're weal them, you need to feel

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Speaker 4: like you're a guest. You need to be taken care of.

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Speaker 4: You need to get it in connection with your server.

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Speaker 4: So it's food and its services where we win and ambiyonce.

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Speaker 1: A lot of these restaurants don't.

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Speaker 2: Feels like McDonald's at times when you walk out, the

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Speaker 2: floors look very cold.

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Speaker 4: The right word outdated. I did a I did a

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Speaker 4: remodel project. I totally agree. I did a remodel project

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Speaker 4: at PF Chain's where we remodel eighty percent of the restaurants.

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Speaker 4: Right if you go to them now, it's red, gold,

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Speaker 4: black like. So that's what we you know, we did that,

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Speaker 4: and so this needs something similar and we're working on that.

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Speaker 4: That takes a bit of time. You have to design it,

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Speaker 4: you have to scope it, you have to test it,

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Speaker 4: you have to prove the results. Then you have to

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Speaker 4: raise the money.

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Speaker 1: Then you have to go. So that takes time.

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Speaker 4: What you can do now is improve service. We launched

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Speaker 4: something we're calling red Carpet Hospitality. We launched that a

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Speaker 4: couple of weeks ago. If you go and ask the

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Speaker 4: server and red lobster about it, they'll tell you about it.

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Speaker 4: RED stands for recognized, engage and delight. When people walk in,

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Speaker 4: you need to recognize them. Smile as soon as they

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Speaker 4: walk in. There should be somebody smiling at the host

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Speaker 4: stand to greet them. You see somebody, you're within ten

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Speaker 4: feet of them, you recognize them within four feet, you

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Speaker 4: speak to them. We call it the ten four role.

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Speaker 4: You make sure that you know when people need to

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Speaker 4: go to the bathroom, you walk them there. You don't

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Speaker 4: point to the bathroom, You escort them. You make sure

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Speaker 4: that you're connecting with them, you're talking with them, youre

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Speaker 4: asking questions. So we're training these behavioral patterns. That's something

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Speaker 4: you can do today, right, and then trying to highlight

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Speaker 4: the quality of the food and introduce them new things

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Speaker 4: like the lobster roles that are fun, that are interesting,

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Speaker 4: so food and service. And then the third point for

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Speaker 4: sure is a Beyonce. We fix the things we can

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Speaker 4: fix quickly, like the music is better. If you go

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Speaker 4: to a red lobster now, you'll notice the music is better.

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Speaker 4: And you'll notice there's small things like we put the

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Speaker 4: market prices on the lobster, we put the liners on

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Speaker 4: the tables. There's small things you can do now, but comprehensively,

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Speaker 4: there needs to be a remodel, right, and that's something

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Speaker 4: that we'll do in the future.

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Speaker 3: I think that y'all got a great foundation because the

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Speaker 3: biggest thing is that nobody's ever said the food.

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Speaker 1: Was whack, even to this day. You walked them to

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Speaker 1: ge business and there everybody went crazy. You know what

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Speaker 1: I'm saying.

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Speaker 3: You think about episodes of the Boondocks when Riley was

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Speaker 3: going crazy lost and shrimp pasta has always been my

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Speaker 3: favorite dishes.

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Speaker 1: I would fuck that up right now, like right next.

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Speaker 2: But you know what, like you're the one day the run.

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Speaker 5: The one reason I stopped going to Red Lobster is

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Speaker 5: because I always felt like Red Lobster's food wasn't as

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Speaker 5: good as a lot of these other places. But now

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Speaker 5: that you're telling me that they're all got from the

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Speaker 5: same place, I just myself felt like it was maybe

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Speaker 5: it's a processed type of thing, and if I go

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Speaker 5: to this restaurant, maybe there I never felt like your food.

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Speaker 4: The food is great, and especially again lobster and crab,

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Speaker 4: because again we buy most of it. We buy more

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Speaker 4: than every country except a couple. You know, Japan with

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Speaker 4: all their sushi buy buys a lot of lobster and crab,

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Speaker 4: and I think China is the only only one that

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Speaker 4: buys more than we do. So just because of that,

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Speaker 4: we get the best product. We have scale, we can

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Speaker 4: demand things, we can insist on standards, which we do,

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Speaker 4: so product wise, it's it's there, But there's a communication

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Speaker 4: that needs to happen. And I'll tell you something like

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Speaker 4: going through what the company went through, the bankruptcy was

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Speaker 4: damaging in a lot of ways, but one of the

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Speaker 4: things that it raises the question like is they mess

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Speaker 4: with the product, and the answer is no, right, because

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Speaker 4: that's one thing you can't mess with. And coming out

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Speaker 4: of it, I just want to get people thinking about

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Speaker 4: Red Lobster how they used to, which is like a

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Speaker 4: fun time, a great meal, great service, great hospitality, and

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Speaker 4: now we need to deliver on that. If I say

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Speaker 4: great hospitality, people going to have a good experience, and

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Speaker 4: then you know that makes me a liar. But we're

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Speaker 4: seeing the results. So before we launched it, we track

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Speaker 4: what we call a sentiment score, which is not positive

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Speaker 4: versus negative sentiment, right, like what are people saying that

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Speaker 4: it's good versushether people saying that's bad. It was thirty

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Speaker 4: when I took over. This last month it was sixty,

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Speaker 4: so it doubled, right, And that's after we launched these programs.

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Speaker 4: We got people because they want people want to have

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Speaker 4: a good experience at work. These waiters and waitresses, it's

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Speaker 4: better for them if they can enjoy themselves and talk

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Speaker 4: to a guest, and they've given license to do that.

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Speaker 4: So we basically like let them let them free on

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Speaker 4: that and gave them some direction, some coaching, some training,

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Speaker 4: and you see the result. So yeah, when you go

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Speaker 4: to Red Lobster next, you'll see it's. Uh, it's gonna

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Speaker 4: feel different, that people are going to take care of

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Speaker 4: you different. There's other things we need to do that

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Speaker 4: will take time. I agree with you on the remodels,

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Speaker 4: but we're starting, you know where we can.

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Speaker 2: What about franchise, I'm sorry.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, there was a list that women that put together

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Speaker 6: right of places that they don't want to be taken

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Speaker 6: on the first date. Red Lapster was number eleven. Eleven, Yes,

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Speaker 6: it was number eleven. So did you see that list?

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Speaker 2: You look like you see it.

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Speaker 6: I'm gonna show you right after. But what do you

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Speaker 6: would you say that real laps is a valid place

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Speaker 6: for a first date?

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Speaker 1: I mean lobster on a first date?

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Speaker 4: Can you beat that? Yeah?

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Speaker 1: First date?

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Speaker 4: You want to share some main lobster twin lobster tales,

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Speaker 4: rock lobster main right, Okay, But.

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Speaker 7: Also on that list it was PF Chain's and cheesecake.

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Speaker 4: I think it's these are chain restaurants, and there's something

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Speaker 4: about like chain versus independent. Now, if you make the

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Speaker 4: chain experience feel like an independent, like each restaurant's its

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Speaker 4: own and they have like a culture and personality. Then

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Speaker 4: it doesn't feel like a chain restaurant. Yeah, and there's

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Speaker 4: restaurants that do that really well, and we're, you know,

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Speaker 4: we're working to become that. But look, if you go

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Speaker 4: in a date and have some Chadybay biscuits, some lobster tails,

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Speaker 4: some barred eye crab, people are gonna have a great time.

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Speaker 5: I wanted to know about franchise, and I know most

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Speaker 5: of the stores a company owned, but you do do

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Speaker 5: they still allow certain people to own franchising or not

435
00:18:25,000 --> 00:18:25,639
Speaker 5: at all anymore?

436
00:18:26,160 --> 00:18:28,000
Speaker 4: So all the company all the stores in the US

437
00:18:28,080 --> 00:18:32,159
Speaker 4: are company owned. There's still some franchise internationally, but it's

438
00:18:32,200 --> 00:18:35,080
Speaker 4: a smaller group. It's about thirty units abroad.

439
00:18:36,480 --> 00:18:38,159
Speaker 5: Why is that good of bad? Is it good if

440
00:18:38,280 --> 00:18:40,560
Speaker 5: some somebody that owns it in that area? Or you

441
00:18:40,600 --> 00:18:42,560
Speaker 5: do you think is better because it's company owned, everything

442
00:18:42,640 --> 00:18:45,280
Speaker 5: is corporately, everything is stamped, everything is the same way.

443
00:18:45,480 --> 00:18:47,520
Speaker 4: Well, it's trade offs, right, and so I'll just speak

444
00:18:47,560 --> 00:18:50,200
Speaker 4: broadly about the franchise model versus the corporate owned and

445
00:18:50,280 --> 00:18:53,879
Speaker 4: operated model. When you own and operate your restaurants, the

446
00:18:53,960 --> 00:18:56,320
Speaker 4: benefit is you get to control them more closely. So

447
00:18:56,440 --> 00:18:58,720
Speaker 4: what I just talked about red carpet hospitality. I rolled

448
00:18:58,720 --> 00:19:00,720
Speaker 4: it out in our restaurants with I COEO and my

449
00:19:00,800 --> 00:19:03,719
Speaker 4: team and we went. We presented to the people who

450
00:19:03,800 --> 00:19:06,920
Speaker 4: manage the rest the level above the restaurants, the people

451
00:19:06,920 --> 00:19:09,359
Speaker 4: who they report to the people at the restaurants.

452
00:19:09,480 --> 00:19:11,480
Speaker 1: We can we rolled it out quickly. You can do that.

453
00:19:11,720 --> 00:19:13,240
Speaker 1: Get everybody in a call. This is what we're doing.

454
00:19:13,600 --> 00:19:15,720
Speaker 4: If it's a franchise business, I need to convince a

455
00:19:15,760 --> 00:19:17,760
Speaker 4: bunch of franchisees A to agree that it's a good

456
00:19:17,760 --> 00:19:21,119
Speaker 4: idea B to one to fund it. This case is

457
00:19:21,200 --> 00:19:23,040
Speaker 4: there's no funding require, but if it might need money

458
00:19:23,119 --> 00:19:25,520
Speaker 4: and they had to put up the cash right Whereas

459
00:19:25,720 --> 00:19:27,159
Speaker 4: you know, if it's if we run it, we can

460
00:19:27,240 --> 00:19:29,680
Speaker 4: just make that decision. So it's easier to do things

461
00:19:29,720 --> 00:19:32,560
Speaker 4: when you control the business. It's easier to improve and

462
00:19:32,680 --> 00:19:35,960
Speaker 4: control quality because you'll have some franchises that do great,

463
00:19:35,960 --> 00:19:38,639
Speaker 4: some franchises that don't, some franchises that have great hositalities,

464
00:19:38,680 --> 00:19:41,359
Speaker 4: some that don't right, so it's easier to manage. Now,

465
00:19:41,400 --> 00:19:43,920
Speaker 4: the benefit of franchise model is you have partners that

466
00:19:44,080 --> 00:19:46,440
Speaker 4: are running smaller businesses. So we have five hundred and

467
00:19:46,480 --> 00:19:50,520
Speaker 4: forty five restaurants if you had ten franchises, it feel

468
00:19:50,520 --> 00:19:52,879
Speaker 4: like you know, ten fifty restaurant chains, right, which is

469
00:19:52,920 --> 00:19:54,240
Speaker 4: easier to manage on some level.

470
00:19:54,560 --> 00:19:55,600
Speaker 1: So there's trade offs.

471
00:19:55,720 --> 00:19:57,480
Speaker 4: But you'll see as a lot of fast casual will

472
00:19:57,480 --> 00:20:00,600
Speaker 4: do franchise models because they're easier to run. Make a pizza,

473
00:20:00,800 --> 00:20:03,800
Speaker 4: So it's easy to franchise pizza restaurants, right if you

474
00:20:03,880 --> 00:20:06,040
Speaker 4: put in another and for ex many minutes, and so

475
00:20:06,280 --> 00:20:07,959
Speaker 4: they can do that and control the quality because it's

476
00:20:08,000 --> 00:20:10,800
Speaker 4: just not that hard. When it gets complicated, you have

477
00:20:10,880 --> 00:20:12,840
Speaker 4: to be careful, not that you can't do it, but

478
00:20:12,880 --> 00:20:14,200
Speaker 4: you just have to be careful and make sure that

479
00:20:14,240 --> 00:20:17,040
Speaker 4: the people you're franchising too art can run it and

480
00:20:17,160 --> 00:20:18,840
Speaker 4: will kind of follow the direction.

481
00:20:19,440 --> 00:20:21,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, I got a million. I got more questions.

482
00:20:21,440 --> 00:20:24,800
Speaker 4: You run out, you run a franchise, franchise a few restaurants.

483
00:20:24,440 --> 00:20:27,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, Crystal christ in South Carolina, Me and my wife

484
00:20:27,320 --> 00:20:28,240
Speaker 1: bought a five of them.

485
00:20:28,440 --> 00:20:30,680
Speaker 3: Good, But I got so many questions for you. But

486
00:20:30,720 --> 00:20:33,600
Speaker 3: now I'm just sitting there thinking about, you know, Red Lobster,

487
00:20:34,600 --> 00:20:37,680
Speaker 3: how do you keep people feeling.

488
00:20:37,400 --> 00:20:39,639
Speaker 1: The nostalgia Red Lobster? Because as I'm sitting here and

489
00:20:39,680 --> 00:20:40,560
Speaker 1: I'm listening to you talk.

490
00:20:40,720 --> 00:20:43,360
Speaker 3: I'm just thinking about all the different memories I've had

491
00:20:43,480 --> 00:20:44,840
Speaker 3: in Red Lobster, So.

492
00:20:44,840 --> 00:20:47,680
Speaker 1: How do you keep this nostalgia that but then still

493
00:20:47,800 --> 00:20:51,560
Speaker 1: move people forward. That's that's why I love the brand.

494
00:20:51,720 --> 00:20:53,240
Speaker 4: That's part of what So when we bought PF Chanks,

495
00:20:53,280 --> 00:20:55,120
Speaker 4: I used to tell people, like you asked anybody about

496
00:20:55,119 --> 00:20:56,880
Speaker 4: PF Chanks, They'll be like, oh, I love PF Chanks.

497
00:20:56,920 --> 00:20:57,920
Speaker 4: I used to go to outre I haven't been in

498
00:20:58,000 --> 00:21:00,800
Speaker 4: a while, and same with Red Lobster into a higher degree.

499
00:21:00,840 --> 00:21:03,680
Speaker 4: I think, especially in our community, a lot of people

500
00:21:03,720 --> 00:21:09,200
Speaker 4: have these amazing memories, and so that's a good starting point.

501
00:21:09,920 --> 00:21:12,600
Speaker 4: So if one is to redeliver on the promise of

502
00:21:12,680 --> 00:21:15,080
Speaker 4: the initial brand, right, which is great food, great service

503
00:21:15,119 --> 00:21:19,000
Speaker 4: at an affordable price. And so we need to deliver

504
00:21:19,119 --> 00:21:22,760
Speaker 4: that number one, which is red carpet hospitality, the food

505
00:21:22,800 --> 00:21:25,479
Speaker 4: menu stuff, like we're working on all that, and then

506
00:21:26,000 --> 00:21:28,520
Speaker 4: it's inviting people back, right, So that's a marketing challenge,

507
00:21:28,600 --> 00:21:31,000
Speaker 4: like talking about it, letting people know that it's different,

508
00:21:31,040 --> 00:21:34,240
Speaker 4: it's got new leadership, we're doing new things, and we're

509
00:21:34,240 --> 00:21:36,200
Speaker 4: trying to get the word out on that. And then

510
00:21:36,680 --> 00:21:40,159
Speaker 4: and then it builds. People come in with good memories,

511
00:21:40,240 --> 00:21:41,280
Speaker 4: trying to see what it is and if they have

512
00:21:41,320 --> 00:21:44,000
Speaker 4: a great experience, then you snap back into it. People

513
00:21:44,080 --> 00:21:46,640
Speaker 4: basically have like they'll have like three, four or five

514
00:21:46,760 --> 00:21:49,720
Speaker 4: restaurants in their minds that they go to. It's dinner

515
00:21:49,840 --> 00:21:51,800
Speaker 4: Thursday night, dinner Friday night. They've got like a list

516
00:21:51,840 --> 00:21:54,159
Speaker 4: in your head. Everybody does sho, I go this one

517
00:21:54,240 --> 00:21:55,400
Speaker 4: or this one of that one. So what you're trying

518
00:21:55,400 --> 00:21:57,399
Speaker 4: to do is get on that list. And you do

519
00:21:57,480 --> 00:21:59,520
Speaker 4: that by getting people to try you and then delivering,

520
00:22:00,200 --> 00:22:02,000
Speaker 4: and then you get on You do that enough times,

521
00:22:02,040 --> 00:22:02,640
Speaker 4: then you're on the list.

522
00:22:02,680 --> 00:22:03,240
Speaker 1: Then you become a.

523
00:22:03,240 --> 00:22:05,640
Speaker 4: Place they think about and you can increase frequency.

524
00:22:05,880 --> 00:22:07,480
Speaker 1: Right, So that's it.

525
00:22:07,560 --> 00:22:09,840
Speaker 4: It's it's it's simple, but it's complicated. It's simple what

526
00:22:09,960 --> 00:22:12,000
Speaker 4: needs to happen. But it's a it's a big organization

527
00:22:12,080 --> 00:22:14,000
Speaker 4: and it's a lot of uh, it's a lot of work, right,

528
00:22:14,040 --> 00:22:16,640
Speaker 4: but but the team's teams motivated and we're getting it done.

529
00:22:16,680 --> 00:22:19,040
Speaker 3: How do you eradicate the stigma of chain restaurants because

530
00:22:19,040 --> 00:22:20,920
Speaker 3: I think that's another thing too, right, people think chain

531
00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:23,440
Speaker 3: restaurants just on healthy for some reason. Even when I

532
00:22:23,520 --> 00:22:24,919
Speaker 3: invested in Crystal, I like the fact that they had

533
00:22:24,960 --> 00:22:26,199
Speaker 3: a vegan option on the menu and.

534
00:22:26,160 --> 00:22:26,639
Speaker 1: Stuff like that.

535
00:22:26,720 --> 00:22:28,680
Speaker 3: But I also wouldn't try to push anything that I

536
00:22:28,800 --> 00:22:31,880
Speaker 3: know I wouldn't eat, right, So ye, so I would

537
00:22:31,880 --> 00:22:34,200
Speaker 3: eat crystal, I would eat red lobster. Like, how do

538
00:22:34,240 --> 00:22:36,640
Speaker 3: you get people to eradicate the stigma of just chain

539
00:22:36,720 --> 00:22:37,840
Speaker 3: restaurants not being healthy?

540
00:22:37,880 --> 00:22:38,800
Speaker 1: I guess yeah, I.

541
00:22:38,840 --> 00:22:42,200
Speaker 4: Mean some chain restaurants are unhealthy based on the products

542
00:22:42,200 --> 00:22:45,040
Speaker 4: they use. I think it's it's about focusing on the

543
00:22:45,359 --> 00:22:47,520
Speaker 4: Like there's a lot of chain restaurants, there's only one

544
00:22:47,600 --> 00:22:48,720
Speaker 4: that serves lobster.

545
00:22:48,520 --> 00:22:49,359
Speaker 1: And crab the way we do.

546
00:22:50,359 --> 00:22:52,960
Speaker 4: So we are a chain restaurant, that is what it is,

547
00:22:53,040 --> 00:22:55,600
Speaker 4: but the but the product is unique, and so it's

548
00:22:55,600 --> 00:22:58,520
Speaker 4: focusing a bit more on the product. Where you're gonna

549
00:22:58,520 --> 00:23:00,920
Speaker 4: get crabed? What chain restaurant're gonna get grea crab? What

550
00:23:01,119 --> 00:23:02,280
Speaker 4: chain restaurant are you going to get.

551
00:23:02,800 --> 00:23:03,199
Speaker 1: Some of our?

552
00:23:03,359 --> 00:23:06,000
Speaker 4: Like you know, we've got this lobster parpadel that just

553
00:23:06,080 --> 00:23:08,720
Speaker 4: came out that nobody has that what the hell is that?

554
00:23:08,800 --> 00:23:10,320
Speaker 1: That's not? Lobster parade is amazing?

555
00:23:10,440 --> 00:23:12,560
Speaker 4: Came out in November, right, So we're doing some new

556
00:23:12,600 --> 00:23:15,920
Speaker 4: things on the menu using lobster and crab mostly, so

557
00:23:16,080 --> 00:23:18,480
Speaker 4: it's folks, it's it becomes a The differentiator for us

558
00:23:18,600 --> 00:23:21,160
Speaker 4: is product, and I want it to be serviced to hospitality.

559
00:23:21,880 --> 00:23:23,639
Speaker 1: And once you if we went on those two, then

560
00:23:23,680 --> 00:23:24,360
Speaker 1: it's like, Okay.

561
00:23:24,440 --> 00:23:26,360
Speaker 4: It's not just a chain restaurant because it's got something

562
00:23:26,359 --> 00:23:28,200
Speaker 4: that you can't get anywhere else, and it's got a

563
00:23:28,280 --> 00:23:30,280
Speaker 4: feeling that you can't find anywhere else. And I feel

564
00:23:30,320 --> 00:23:32,000
Speaker 4: like family when I get there, and I want to

565
00:23:32,000 --> 00:23:33,639
Speaker 4: come back, like these are the things you can separate

566
00:23:33,680 --> 00:23:34,080
Speaker 4: yourself on.

567
00:23:34,320 --> 00:23:37,320
Speaker 6: And then some of y'all had some like y'all we're

568
00:23:37,359 --> 00:23:40,000
Speaker 6: working with costam egos like running some promotions where y'all

569
00:23:40,200 --> 00:23:42,720
Speaker 6: had like that's good too, I mean because that that's

570
00:23:42,800 --> 00:23:44,159
Speaker 6: like the drink right now, So.

571
00:23:44,920 --> 00:23:46,560
Speaker 4: A Snoop Dog we're talking to him about his new

572
00:23:46,640 --> 00:23:50,920
Speaker 4: gin drink, right and so yeah, there's opportunities for co branding.

573
00:23:51,040 --> 00:23:52,720
Speaker 4: And we've got Blake Griffin right now in our ads.

574
00:23:53,119 --> 00:23:56,399
Speaker 4: He's dunking lobster into butter. If anybody's curious, you can

575
00:23:56,480 --> 00:23:58,920
Speaker 4: you can look that up. But uh, but yeah, partnerships

576
00:23:58,960 --> 00:24:04,479
Speaker 4: are key right at a bar, and when they got

577
00:24:04,720 --> 00:24:10,000
Speaker 4: the bar's got that exactly and yeah, getting the right partnerships,

578
00:24:10,040 --> 00:24:12,879
Speaker 4: right like people who uh because you want to be

579
00:24:12,960 --> 00:24:14,440
Speaker 4: more relevant mm hmm.

580
00:24:15,280 --> 00:24:16,880
Speaker 5: But like he just said, like you know, I didn't

581
00:24:16,880 --> 00:24:18,760
Speaker 5: even know there was a bar red Lobster because that's

582
00:24:18,800 --> 00:24:21,280
Speaker 5: not what people think about when they go watch the game, right,

583
00:24:21,320 --> 00:24:22,640
Speaker 5: they don't think about going to red Lobster.

584
00:24:22,680 --> 00:24:23,920
Speaker 2: And now those were some of the things that happened

585
00:24:24,240 --> 00:24:24,680
Speaker 2: because when.

586
00:24:24,560 --> 00:24:26,000
Speaker 1: We were young, like when we were going to Red

587
00:24:26,040 --> 00:24:27,840
Speaker 1: loftter we were young, were a drink, right, so we

588
00:24:27,880 --> 00:24:30,000
Speaker 1: didn't drink. We didn't think, but we don't think about that.

589
00:24:30,119 --> 00:24:31,879
Speaker 6: Now you know they were running the ass though it

590
00:24:31,960 --> 00:24:35,320
Speaker 6: was commercials they had Like that's how that's how you're

591
00:24:35,320 --> 00:24:36,760
Speaker 6: seeing anything about the costs.

592
00:24:39,160 --> 00:24:40,000
Speaker 7: I'm sorry, what did you ad?

593
00:24:40,920 --> 00:24:41,680
Speaker 1: What I didn't?

594
00:24:41,680 --> 00:24:44,280
Speaker 3: I never saw the cos I wanted to watch TV.

595
00:24:44,359 --> 00:24:45,920
Speaker 1: And be honest, I'm serious because.

596
00:24:45,960 --> 00:24:48,280
Speaker 3: To that point, I've seen the new partnership with Popeye

597
00:24:48,320 --> 00:24:51,199
Speaker 3: and Don Julio, but I never remember seeing the con But.

598
00:24:51,240 --> 00:24:53,480
Speaker 6: Be honest, you've seen that because the girls on line,

599
00:24:53,600 --> 00:24:55,840
Speaker 6: because the videos are going viral with them like acting

600
00:24:55,920 --> 00:24:58,280
Speaker 6: like it's a section. You can't if we're trying to

601
00:24:58,320 --> 00:24:59,280
Speaker 6: get back to five star.

602
00:24:59,240 --> 00:25:02,639
Speaker 7: Feeling real life. We can't have no sections, no bottom

603
00:25:02,720 --> 00:25:03,600
Speaker 7: girls coming out.

604
00:25:04,359 --> 00:25:06,440
Speaker 1: There's things you can do, right. We launched that happy hour,

605
00:25:06,840 --> 00:25:08,600
Speaker 1: right and like a happy hour is a simple thing.

606
00:25:08,760 --> 00:25:11,240
Speaker 4: It's just you know, the same drinks or different drinks,

607
00:25:11,280 --> 00:25:14,040
Speaker 4: but discounted at a certain time. Come three to six,

608
00:25:14,160 --> 00:25:16,280
Speaker 4: get drinks for five bucks, is what we're doing.

609
00:25:16,400 --> 00:25:18,360
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you get your beer, wine.

610
00:25:18,440 --> 00:25:21,879
Speaker 4: Cocktail five bucks discount on the appetizers. So now we

611
00:25:21,960 --> 00:25:23,840
Speaker 4: need to message that more, you know, to the point

612
00:25:23,920 --> 00:25:25,879
Speaker 4: like people need to know that. But but we launched that,

613
00:25:26,000 --> 00:25:27,840
Speaker 4: and you know, so I got here. We're doing a

614
00:25:27,880 --> 00:25:30,920
Speaker 4: lot right, So that came out in November too. So

615
00:25:31,640 --> 00:25:33,480
Speaker 4: we want to be a place where you can come

616
00:25:33,760 --> 00:25:35,480
Speaker 4: hang out at the bar, have a drink, have fun,

617
00:25:35,640 --> 00:25:37,920
Speaker 4: have a full dinner. It's like, uh, you know, it's

618
00:25:37,960 --> 00:25:41,880
Speaker 4: fancy food, but it's an approachable feeling. Right. You don't

619
00:25:41,920 --> 00:25:43,680
Speaker 4: need to wear a suit, you know, to come to

620
00:25:43,840 --> 00:25:47,080
Speaker 4: to come to dinner, right, come, it's it's it's you know,

621
00:25:47,560 --> 00:25:48,399
Speaker 4: we serve all people.

622
00:25:48,640 --> 00:25:51,200
Speaker 2: Did you stop the endless shrinp promotion? It's done, so

623
00:25:51,320 --> 00:25:55,400
Speaker 2: no more endless shrip jes dare you got a messed

624
00:25:55,480 --> 00:25:55,760
Speaker 2: up now?

625
00:25:56,680 --> 00:25:58,159
Speaker 3: But by the way, that was the dumb welln't a

626
00:25:58,200 --> 00:26:00,640
Speaker 3: dumb promotion, But don't promise people in less shrimp because

627
00:26:00,680 --> 00:26:01,320
Speaker 3: y'all never give in.

628
00:26:01,800 --> 00:26:05,119
Speaker 1: It was a challenge. I know people who tried. They

629
00:26:05,160 --> 00:26:07,600
Speaker 1: don't know if you put a cap on it. He's tried.

630
00:26:07,720 --> 00:26:09,240
Speaker 1: I've been in the restaurants when they put a cap

631
00:26:09,280 --> 00:26:10,040
Speaker 1: on the end the shrimp.

632
00:26:10,080 --> 00:26:13,160
Speaker 4: I mean, look, the way it was done didn't work.

633
00:26:13,160 --> 00:26:14,800
Speaker 4: I'm not saying it'll never be done, but it'll be

634
00:26:14,840 --> 00:26:16,480
Speaker 4: done in a way that's that's more sensible.

635
00:26:16,640 --> 00:26:18,159
Speaker 3: What's sensible because you guys, I'm gonna tell you what

636
00:26:18,200 --> 00:26:20,800
Speaker 3: people will do. Going there with four people, one person

637
00:26:21,000 --> 00:26:23,000
Speaker 3: order endless shrimp and they just keep bringing mass shrimp

638
00:26:23,080 --> 00:26:23,560
Speaker 3: for the table.

639
00:26:23,680 --> 00:26:24,800
Speaker 1: That's that's insensible.

640
00:26:27,640 --> 00:26:31,040
Speaker 4: I mean it is so Look, I mean these promotions

641
00:26:31,080 --> 00:26:33,119
Speaker 4: people do promotions like this Olive Garden does a and

642
00:26:33,359 --> 00:26:35,040
Speaker 4: unless positive promotion like people do these.

643
00:26:35,000 --> 00:26:39,760
Speaker 1: Lives is a lie. They will put a cap on

644
00:26:39,880 --> 00:26:42,520
Speaker 1: your fat ass, but different because it fills you up

645
00:26:42,560 --> 00:26:46,399
Speaker 1: so fast and it's cheap, and it's cheap, so they

646
00:26:46,440 --> 00:26:49,560
Speaker 1: can do that. So you just need to the math

647
00:26:49,600 --> 00:26:50,560
Speaker 1: needs to needs to make sense.

648
00:26:50,800 --> 00:26:53,720
Speaker 4: Endless biscuits still, if you want more biscuits, they will

649
00:26:53,760 --> 00:26:54,560
Speaker 4: give you more biscuits.

650
00:26:54,720 --> 00:26:58,480
Speaker 1: We bring out six to the table. The biscuits. Biscuits

651
00:26:58,520 --> 00:26:59,960
Speaker 1: we can give you because when you eat them in

652
00:27:00,080 --> 00:27:00,600
Speaker 1: drink that water.

653
00:27:02,560 --> 00:27:05,320
Speaker 4: Well. So this biscuits are amazing, right, and people love

654
00:27:05,400 --> 00:27:07,000
Speaker 4: them and it's an easy thing for us to do.

655
00:27:07,160 --> 00:27:09,320
Speaker 4: So you know, that's an example of being hospitable. You know,

656
00:27:09,400 --> 00:27:10,879
Speaker 4: not every table's gon to get endle this biscuits. But

657
00:27:10,920 --> 00:27:12,600
Speaker 4: if you were asked your server, it could have more biscus.

658
00:27:12,640 --> 00:27:13,320
Speaker 4: And're not going to say no.

659
00:27:13,560 --> 00:27:15,200
Speaker 1: You allowed to tell its the truth about the endless shrimp.

660
00:27:15,200 --> 00:27:17,639
Speaker 1: Tellus the truth it was. It never was endless. It

661
00:27:17,800 --> 00:27:21,639
Speaker 1: was endless. We put them out of business, and and

662
00:27:21,760 --> 00:27:22,840
Speaker 1: why did it come to an end?

663
00:27:24,040 --> 00:27:26,120
Speaker 4: Look, let me say this. I can't get too much

664
00:27:26,119 --> 00:27:26,359
Speaker 4: into it.

665
00:27:26,440 --> 00:27:30,879
Speaker 1: I'll say this. The previous owner of the business was

666
00:27:30,960 --> 00:27:35,680
Speaker 1: the shrimp supplier to the business. Mmm, he's double dipping

667
00:27:35,760 --> 00:27:38,040
Speaker 1: shrimp cut off. So the math is different.

668
00:27:38,440 --> 00:27:41,720
Speaker 4: Got you If you're strictly thinking about the business versus

669
00:27:42,000 --> 00:27:45,520
Speaker 4: also thinking about the supply chain the shrimp supplier, then

670
00:27:45,840 --> 00:27:49,359
Speaker 4: it's different math. Right, So I'm thinking just about the

671
00:27:49,400 --> 00:27:52,600
Speaker 4: business right now the supplier is no longer involved.

672
00:27:53,600 --> 00:27:56,240
Speaker 3: It often seems like they want to put black people

673
00:27:56,480 --> 00:27:59,320
Speaker 3: in the CEO positions when the company is like messed up, right,

674
00:27:59,760 --> 00:28:01,920
Speaker 3: So why did you want this job? Especially at the

675
00:28:02,000 --> 00:28:04,040
Speaker 3: time Red Lobster was going through bankruptcy.

676
00:28:05,640 --> 00:28:07,000
Speaker 1: So I did the work before.

677
00:28:08,200 --> 00:28:11,560
Speaker 4: Look, I'm an ambitious person and i'm and I'm young

678
00:28:11,640 --> 00:28:14,080
Speaker 4: for the position. I had a lot of success that changed,

679
00:28:14,080 --> 00:28:16,200
Speaker 4: but even that when I took over was not looking good.

680
00:28:18,440 --> 00:28:22,760
Speaker 1: So for me, it's I think the brand is worth saving.

681
00:28:23,960 --> 00:28:25,399
Speaker 4: I think it can be saved. There's a lot of

682
00:28:25,480 --> 00:28:27,280
Speaker 4: things that need to be done. But I've got the

683
00:28:27,400 --> 00:28:29,680
Speaker 4: energy and I've got you know, I'm dedicating the time.

684
00:28:31,080 --> 00:28:32,080
Speaker 1: We hired a great team.

685
00:28:32,880 --> 00:28:35,080
Speaker 4: So for me, it's it's Look, there's it's a great

686
00:28:35,240 --> 00:28:37,399
Speaker 4: iconic brand. There's thirty thousand people that work for the company.

687
00:28:37,440 --> 00:28:38,920
Speaker 4: If we can save it, that's a good thing for

688
00:28:39,280 --> 00:28:40,600
Speaker 4: the country. It's a good thing for the people that

689
00:28:40,720 --> 00:28:42,040
Speaker 4: work there. It's a good thing for the people that

690
00:28:42,480 --> 00:28:46,440
Speaker 4: have history going there. Right, So it's it's it's it's

691
00:28:46,480 --> 00:28:49,800
Speaker 4: not gonna it's not easy, but it's doable, and why

692
00:28:49,880 --> 00:28:51,560
Speaker 4: not why not try to try to see if we

693
00:28:51,600 --> 00:28:52,240
Speaker 4: can get this done?

694
00:28:52,400 --> 00:28:54,040
Speaker 3: How do you know when the back wouldn't step out

695
00:28:54,040 --> 00:28:55,440
Speaker 3: because you know, you was with PF Chang for four

696
00:28:55,520 --> 00:28:57,280
Speaker 3: years for all, Why did you step down?

697
00:28:57,280 --> 00:28:59,680
Speaker 2: That's a big question. Yeahy did you leave Pfchangs? Well,

698
00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:00,640
Speaker 2: we more or.

699
00:29:00,680 --> 00:29:04,320
Speaker 4: Less achieved the objectives that we set out to achieve initially.

700
00:29:05,880 --> 00:29:08,480
Speaker 4: And you know, I was I had a I was

701
00:29:08,560 --> 00:29:10,560
Speaker 4: also involved on the on the finance side, right, I

702
00:29:10,600 --> 00:29:11,440
Speaker 4: was working at a hedge fund.

703
00:29:11,480 --> 00:29:13,280
Speaker 1: So I went back to the private equity side to.

704
00:29:14,800 --> 00:29:17,360
Speaker 4: Look at the opportunity to do something similar because we learned,

705
00:29:17,520 --> 00:29:19,520
Speaker 4: we learned a lot doing that, and we felt like

706
00:29:19,600 --> 00:29:22,240
Speaker 4: we could we could do that again, right with a

707
00:29:22,320 --> 00:29:22,880
Speaker 4: different brand.

708
00:29:23,200 --> 00:29:23,520
Speaker 1: And then the.

709
00:29:23,520 --> 00:29:27,960
Speaker 4: Fortress Group reached out and and we went. We worked

710
00:29:27,960 --> 00:29:31,400
Speaker 4: with them on Red Lobster. But PF Chang's is a

711
00:29:31,480 --> 00:29:33,800
Speaker 4: great business. This is about twice the size of PF

712
00:29:33,880 --> 00:29:35,840
Speaker 4: Changs in terms of sales and maybe three exercise in

713
00:29:35,920 --> 00:29:39,240
Speaker 4: terms of footprint. So it's a bigger challenge, it's a

714
00:29:39,240 --> 00:29:44,600
Speaker 4: bigger opportunity. You know, a lot of life is calculated risk, right,

715
00:29:45,440 --> 00:29:51,240
Speaker 4: and it's you know, it's hard to really build something

716
00:29:51,320 --> 00:29:54,360
Speaker 4: without taking some chances along the way, right, There's no

717
00:29:54,440 --> 00:29:56,200
Speaker 4: guarantee that you're gonna be there's no guarantee when I

718
00:29:56,200 --> 00:29:57,880
Speaker 4: took over the PF Changs world that i'd be successful.

719
00:29:57,920 --> 00:30:00,160
Speaker 4: But if I was, you know, it'd be great for

720
00:30:00,200 --> 00:30:02,440
Speaker 4: a lot of people. And we work same thing here.

721
00:30:03,000 --> 00:30:04,880
Speaker 4: If we're successful here, this is you know, this is

722
00:30:05,080 --> 00:30:07,040
Speaker 4: an iconic brand that we brought back from bankruptcy and

723
00:30:07,040 --> 00:30:10,400
Speaker 4: hopefully turn into a thriving company for decades to come.

724
00:30:10,960 --> 00:30:12,840
Speaker 1: Right, So that that to me is worth it's worth

725
00:30:12,920 --> 00:30:15,520
Speaker 1: it's worth going for. So why did you do that? James?

726
00:30:16,080 --> 00:30:17,719
Speaker 1: Just we were just basically done one.

727
00:30:17,800 --> 00:30:19,520
Speaker 4: We're ready to you know, once you turned them around,

728
00:30:19,600 --> 00:30:22,680
Speaker 4: once the owners decide that it's time to do something,

729
00:30:22,720 --> 00:30:25,920
Speaker 4: you know, they we turned it around and eventually you know,

730
00:30:26,560 --> 00:30:28,480
Speaker 4: without commenting on their situation, but they're going to do

731
00:30:28,480 --> 00:30:31,640
Speaker 4: different things from an ownership perspective, right, So it's uh,

732
00:30:31,760 --> 00:30:35,040
Speaker 4: it was like behind the scenes convos, right, but nothing

733
00:30:35,080 --> 00:30:35,800
Speaker 4: to do with the business.

734
00:30:35,960 --> 00:30:38,000
Speaker 3: So then just the mind state of being you know

735
00:30:38,560 --> 00:30:40,560
Speaker 3: who you are, like, you know, they they'll hire you,

736
00:30:40,680 --> 00:30:42,760
Speaker 3: put you in these positions, you'll turn them around and

737
00:30:42,760 --> 00:30:44,400
Speaker 3: you'll move on to the No no.

738
00:30:44,640 --> 00:30:47,000
Speaker 1: No, I mean it depends on the situation.

739
00:30:47,280 --> 00:30:51,280
Speaker 4: If it's if it's a group, for example, Fortresses willing

740
00:30:51,360 --> 00:30:53,840
Speaker 4: to invest and do the work to turn this business around.

741
00:30:54,240 --> 00:30:55,960
Speaker 4: And if that's the case, then I can be successful.

742
00:30:56,560 --> 00:31:00,520
Speaker 4: But you need that alignment ownership and operator. When ownership

743
00:31:01,080 --> 00:31:04,320
Speaker 4: takes a different perspective, for example, we want to manage cost,

744
00:31:04,440 --> 00:31:07,360
Speaker 4: let's say, or we want to you know, cut certain things,

745
00:31:07,560 --> 00:31:10,440
Speaker 4: we want to stop investing in certain things. If I

746
00:31:10,680 --> 00:31:13,160
Speaker 4: disagree with that and I go executed, then I'm responsible

747
00:31:13,160 --> 00:31:15,920
Speaker 4: for the result. So on some level, you just need

748
00:31:15,960 --> 00:31:19,200
Speaker 4: to agree with what ownership wants to do. And ownership

749
00:31:19,240 --> 00:31:21,040
Speaker 4: owns a business. If you disagree to you either gotta leave,

750
00:31:21,160 --> 00:31:24,840
Speaker 4: right not the people that own the business. So to

751
00:31:24,920 --> 00:31:27,520
Speaker 4: the extent that you know, look, every CEO is either

752
00:31:27,560 --> 00:31:30,680
Speaker 4: gonna resign or get fired one day. That's how CEO

753
00:31:30,800 --> 00:31:32,920
Speaker 4: job's in. You don't get promoted, you know, from that.

754
00:31:33,640 --> 00:31:36,600
Speaker 4: So for me, it's as long as things are aligned,

755
00:31:36,640 --> 00:31:37,160
Speaker 4: it makes sense.

756
00:31:37,200 --> 00:31:38,280
Speaker 1: But you don't. I don't want.

757
00:31:39,000 --> 00:31:41,960
Speaker 4: It's not wise to be in a situation where you

758
00:31:42,040 --> 00:31:44,600
Speaker 4: don't agree with the plan and you're responsible for implementing

759
00:31:44,680 --> 00:31:47,080
Speaker 4: the plan. Because if you think something's not gonna work

760
00:31:47,120 --> 00:31:48,360
Speaker 4: and you do it and it doesn't work like you

761
00:31:48,440 --> 00:31:51,800
Speaker 4: thought it was like you, like you you predicted and

762
00:31:51,920 --> 00:31:53,480
Speaker 4: it's you're still gonna get blamed.

763
00:31:54,640 --> 00:31:54,920
Speaker 2: Change.

764
00:31:55,000 --> 00:31:57,640
Speaker 5: Do you change the target audience for red labster. I'm

765
00:31:57,680 --> 00:31:59,720
Speaker 5: just thinking about it now, right, And anytime you usually

766
00:31:59,720 --> 00:32:02,719
Speaker 5: see a red Lobsters in neighborhoods, right, it's in queens

767
00:32:03,640 --> 00:32:07,440
Speaker 5: in areas where it's usually middle class or poorer. But

768
00:32:07,520 --> 00:32:09,360
Speaker 5: when I look at PF Chain's, it's a little different.

769
00:32:09,400 --> 00:32:10,040
Speaker 5: It's a lot different.

770
00:32:10,080 --> 00:32:10,840
Speaker 1: Actually, do you.

771
00:32:10,960 --> 00:32:14,040
Speaker 5: Change your audience or is that the case, because especially

772
00:32:14,080 --> 00:32:15,320
Speaker 5: with the world now, a lot of people are not

773
00:32:15,480 --> 00:32:17,600
Speaker 5: making the money as they were before and they're struggling,

774
00:32:17,720 --> 00:32:20,600
Speaker 5: so which means in those areas they're gonna be struggling

775
00:32:20,600 --> 00:32:21,280
Speaker 5: to come to red lobster.

776
00:32:21,600 --> 00:32:23,400
Speaker 4: You mean the demographics of where the restaurants are.

777
00:32:23,480 --> 00:32:23,960
Speaker 2: Absolutely.

778
00:32:24,560 --> 00:32:27,800
Speaker 4: So, it's tricky to move your restaurant footprint because you

779
00:32:27,880 --> 00:32:31,000
Speaker 4: have long leases and the footprint kind of is what

780
00:32:31,080 --> 00:32:33,440
Speaker 4: it is. Some come up for renewal every year, et cetera.

781
00:32:33,560 --> 00:32:36,040
Speaker 4: But for the most part, what we can do is

782
00:32:37,280 --> 00:32:39,240
Speaker 4: so value is an interest, So value is an equation.

783
00:32:39,920 --> 00:32:42,360
Speaker 4: Part of it is price, and you can get some

784
00:32:42,480 --> 00:32:44,480
Speaker 4: things on the menu that are lower priced. For example,

785
00:32:44,480 --> 00:32:46,120
Speaker 4: the lobster roles are great if you want lobster and

786
00:32:46,160 --> 00:32:47,600
Speaker 4: you want it for twenty bucks, We've got the lobster

787
00:32:47,680 --> 00:32:51,520
Speaker 4: role in certain markets for that price. At the same time,

788
00:32:51,640 --> 00:32:53,320
Speaker 4: values what you get for the price. So if you

789
00:32:53,400 --> 00:32:57,480
Speaker 4: improve what you get, then you improve value. So if

790
00:32:58,000 --> 00:33:00,720
Speaker 4: hospitality is way better and the food is interesting and

791
00:33:00,880 --> 00:33:03,040
Speaker 4: the drinks are fun, and you pay the same price,

792
00:33:03,080 --> 00:33:04,680
Speaker 4: but all of that is better, people will perceive that

793
00:33:04,720 --> 00:33:09,720
Speaker 4: as better value. So value is important, but we approach

794
00:33:09,720 --> 00:33:12,240
Speaker 4: it from both ends. Improve the product and then give

795
00:33:12,280 --> 00:33:15,400
Speaker 4: people entry level things that you can get for twenty

796
00:33:15,440 --> 00:33:17,040
Speaker 4: bucks fifteen bucks. You know, we have Shrimp your Way

797
00:33:17,080 --> 00:33:19,800
Speaker 4: for you know, sixteen ninety nine for two types of shrimp.

798
00:33:19,960 --> 00:33:23,280
Speaker 4: There's things you can do that are approachable if you

799
00:33:23,320 --> 00:33:25,200
Speaker 4: don't want to do the full lobster for it for

800
00:33:25,280 --> 00:33:28,040
Speaker 4: a higher price. Right So, I'm looking at the lobsters

801
00:33:28,320 --> 00:33:29,600
Speaker 4: me and you right now, I go lot. I might

802
00:33:29,640 --> 00:33:31,920
Speaker 4: go around last this week, and I'm not I might

803
00:33:32,000 --> 00:33:33,960
Speaker 4: take send me. I'm like, I never took my kids

804
00:33:34,000 --> 00:33:36,959
Speaker 4: the red loss never. And I'm like, you know, may

805
00:33:37,040 --> 00:33:38,960
Speaker 4: like me in the white list. Take the kids the

806
00:33:39,000 --> 00:33:42,000
Speaker 4: red lobster just to see what they know what for you. No,

807
00:33:42,080 --> 00:33:43,520
Speaker 4: I'm not gonna tell you I'm going, but I'm gonna

808
00:33:43,520 --> 00:33:43,680
Speaker 4: tell you.

809
00:33:45,920 --> 00:33:48,320
Speaker 3: I know exactly which one I'm going to too, what

810
00:33:48,520 --> 00:33:50,160
Speaker 3: you're going to to you know when I'm going to

811
00:33:51,520 --> 00:33:52,440
Speaker 3: go on.

812
00:33:53,200 --> 00:33:56,960
Speaker 1: Yep, but that one looks a little bit up though

813
00:33:57,200 --> 00:33:58,880
Speaker 1: it looks a lot beat up. But I'm gonna tell

814
00:33:58,920 --> 00:33:59,280
Speaker 1: you something.

815
00:33:59,400 --> 00:34:01,440
Speaker 3: That's why I was just asking that question. They don't

816
00:34:01,440 --> 00:34:03,720
Speaker 3: look I laugh it every morning and in my mind,

817
00:34:03,920 --> 00:34:06,360
Speaker 3: you know, you just thinking nostalgia. I'm like, damn, yo,

818
00:34:06,480 --> 00:34:07,840
Speaker 3: back in the day when I was young, that have

819
00:34:07,880 --> 00:34:10,359
Speaker 3: been perfect. The hotel right there, the red Lobster right there,

820
00:34:10,400 --> 00:34:11,160
Speaker 3: you go, right, the red.

821
00:34:12,440 --> 00:34:15,360
Speaker 1: Still perfect, man, it's still perfect motel.

822
00:34:17,120 --> 00:34:19,160
Speaker 3: But think about when you were seventeen eighteen, that'd have

823
00:34:19,200 --> 00:34:22,440
Speaker 3: been perfect, right well, think about.

824
00:34:22,200 --> 00:34:26,480
Speaker 7: When Beyonce said it in the song yes Me Good,

825
00:34:26,600 --> 00:34:28,200
Speaker 7: I take as you Red Lobster.

826
00:34:28,360 --> 00:34:30,600
Speaker 1: What did that do for the same Did y'all capitalize

827
00:34:30,640 --> 00:34:34,800
Speaker 1: on this? Yes, I was here, Oh that was before me.

828
00:34:35,680 --> 00:34:37,360
Speaker 3: It's not too late though, right right, because it's not

829
00:34:37,400 --> 00:34:39,239
Speaker 3: too late for that. Even when Riley mentioned it on

830
00:34:39,280 --> 00:34:40,000
Speaker 3: The Boon Doctors.

831
00:34:40,360 --> 00:34:42,399
Speaker 4: You know, the Kelsey Brothers did something with that. So yeah,

832
00:34:42,440 --> 00:34:43,719
Speaker 4: I mean, part of the part of the game is

833
00:34:43,840 --> 00:34:46,759
Speaker 4: to is to take advantage of cultural moments, right, like

834
00:34:46,800 --> 00:34:48,440
Speaker 4: when something happens in the culture, like you want to

835
00:34:48,480 --> 00:34:50,560
Speaker 4: be on it, so that that's something that we weren't

836
00:34:50,640 --> 00:34:52,040
Speaker 4: very good at in the past and we need to

837
00:34:52,080 --> 00:34:52,560
Speaker 4: get better.

838
00:34:52,480 --> 00:34:54,200
Speaker 1: After sure, did you even talk to him about that? Like,

839
00:34:54,280 --> 00:34:56,560
Speaker 1: did anybody reach out to beyond you know, I can't

840
00:34:56,600 --> 00:34:57,839
Speaker 1: speak to that and I wasn't here.

841
00:34:57,920 --> 00:35:01,359
Speaker 4: But but for example, Flavor Flavor we did, right fat

842
00:35:02,080 --> 00:35:04,480
Speaker 4: wanted to save the you know, wanted to save Red Lobster.

843
00:35:04,600 --> 00:35:06,680
Speaker 4: They you know, we did a promotion with them. So

844
00:35:06,760 --> 00:35:10,880
Speaker 4: there's it's it's important for sure. And uh yeah, I

845
00:35:10,920 --> 00:35:13,520
Speaker 4: mean look now Kelsey Billers reach out, we respond the

846
00:35:13,520 --> 00:35:16,760
Speaker 4: same day, right like, so we're we're engaging and it's important.

847
00:35:17,080 --> 00:35:19,759
Speaker 3: Man, I'm so impressed by you because I mean, number one,

848
00:35:19,840 --> 00:35:22,280
Speaker 3: you get young, you're thirty six and you're from Nigeria.

849
00:35:22,320 --> 00:35:24,560
Speaker 3: I'm just wondering, like, what are the challenges you know,

850
00:35:24,680 --> 00:35:27,080
Speaker 3: being so young as the CEO. Do people take you

851
00:35:27,160 --> 00:35:29,960
Speaker 3: as serious as they should in the business that you're in?

852
00:35:30,520 --> 00:35:31,080
Speaker 1: Yeah? I think so.

853
00:35:31,360 --> 00:35:35,200
Speaker 4: I mean, look, I think you know the best thing

854
00:35:35,280 --> 00:35:38,600
Speaker 4: you can do to accrue the respect you want is

855
00:35:38,640 --> 00:35:40,600
Speaker 4: to just be a person worthy of respect, right Like

856
00:35:40,760 --> 00:35:42,239
Speaker 4: if you behave, if you behave the right if you

857
00:35:42,280 --> 00:35:44,040
Speaker 4: develop yourself a certain way and you behave the right

858
00:35:44,080 --> 00:35:46,440
Speaker 4: way and you're a serious person, and.

859
00:35:46,480 --> 00:35:51,000
Speaker 1: That's obvious, people will they will respect you. It's it's natural.

860
00:35:51,040 --> 00:35:53,279
Speaker 4: People know, right if they meet you and they don't

861
00:35:53,320 --> 00:35:55,719
Speaker 4: feel subconsciously like your a person deserving a respect and

862
00:35:55,760 --> 00:35:57,880
Speaker 4: will give it to you, especially if you're like but

863
00:35:58,320 --> 00:35:58,839
Speaker 4: I'm black.

864
00:35:59,239 --> 00:36:01,279
Speaker 1: Yeah, sure, but you.

865
00:36:01,320 --> 00:36:03,120
Speaker 4: Can overcome all that just by being a person that's

866
00:36:03,160 --> 00:36:06,480
Speaker 4: clearly worthy of respect. And then you know that goes

867
00:36:06,480 --> 00:36:08,520
Speaker 4: out the window, like I don't, I don't have issues.

868
00:36:08,960 --> 00:36:10,560
Speaker 4: If I sit down with somebody for thirty minutes, they

869
00:36:10,560 --> 00:36:13,080
Speaker 4: don't leave feeling like, you know, he's not serious, or

870
00:36:13,160 --> 00:36:14,920
Speaker 4: he doesn't know what he's talking about, or he's not intelligent,

871
00:36:15,000 --> 00:36:15,760
Speaker 4: or he can't communicate.

872
00:36:15,920 --> 00:36:18,000
Speaker 1: At the end of it, you know they're fine.

873
00:36:18,560 --> 00:36:22,000
Speaker 4: So yeah, maybe before but you know, you talk to somebody,

874
00:36:22,360 --> 00:36:25,279
Speaker 4: you know they know they people know, they understand, right,

875
00:36:25,320 --> 00:36:26,120
Speaker 4: and so they don't.

876
00:36:26,520 --> 00:36:28,920
Speaker 7: Know that asks about me, man, I'm asks about me.

877
00:36:29,040 --> 00:36:30,920
Speaker 1: Well, it's just it's just it's just I was.

878
00:36:31,120 --> 00:36:33,319
Speaker 4: You know, you're not born as a finished product. It's

879
00:36:33,320 --> 00:36:34,040
Speaker 4: all about development.

880
00:36:34,480 --> 00:36:36,640
Speaker 1: So if you if you work you know, like I said,

881
00:36:36,760 --> 00:36:37,920
Speaker 1: I said, they may be joined the speech in the

882
00:36:37,960 --> 00:36:38,880
Speaker 1: Bay team in high.

883
00:36:38,760 --> 00:36:41,160
Speaker 7: School, you're that guy can send that guy really well.

884
00:36:41,239 --> 00:36:44,759
Speaker 4: Now, but that's been a working process, right, you know

885
00:36:44,800 --> 00:36:47,560
Speaker 4: I played football growing up through high school college.

886
00:36:47,760 --> 00:36:47,960
Speaker 1: Yeah.

887
00:36:48,080 --> 00:36:49,680
Speaker 4: Maybe it makes you strong physically, we know what it

888
00:36:49,680 --> 00:36:51,400
Speaker 4: does makes you strong mentally. This is what you got

889
00:36:51,520 --> 00:36:52,759
Speaker 4: to wake up six am every day.

890
00:36:52,760 --> 00:36:53,439
Speaker 1: You gotta go train.

891
00:36:53,520 --> 00:36:55,840
Speaker 4: You got so you learn things right and that becomes

892
00:36:55,880 --> 00:36:59,520
Speaker 4: part of your character. You know, the emotional discipline that's

893
00:36:59,520 --> 00:37:02,560
Speaker 4: important too, and you learn that. So if you spend

894
00:37:02,560 --> 00:37:05,160
Speaker 4: your life building these skills, you will become a person

895
00:37:05,200 --> 00:37:06,280
Speaker 4: that has these skills.

896
00:37:06,400 --> 00:37:07,800
Speaker 1: And that is what people respect.

897
00:37:08,200 --> 00:37:11,400
Speaker 3: How the weaponization of DEI impacted you if at all

898
00:37:11,440 --> 00:37:13,520
Speaker 3: the people say, oh, he's a de I higher.

899
00:37:14,040 --> 00:37:15,800
Speaker 1: No, I've just been so successful throughout my life. I

900
00:37:15,840 --> 00:37:18,840
Speaker 1: don't get that. I mean you could take you know.

901
00:37:19,080 --> 00:37:22,200
Speaker 4: For me, it goes back to early early I aim

902
00:37:22,320 --> 00:37:24,640
Speaker 4: to excel at everything I do, and there's very little

903
00:37:24,680 --> 00:37:27,200
Speaker 4: evidence of me not excelling at anything that I've tried

904
00:37:27,239 --> 00:37:31,480
Speaker 4: to do, from football to Brown to Goldman to TVG

905
00:37:31,760 --> 00:37:35,200
Speaker 4: to Harvard to Paul Like, there's no real l's on

906
00:37:35,239 --> 00:37:37,440
Speaker 4: the not saying I won't fail it anything, and I

907
00:37:37,440 --> 00:37:38,120
Speaker 4: have failed at plenty.

908
00:37:38,520 --> 00:37:49,440
Speaker 1: Let's go talk to them coaches. Well, there's a record

909
00:37:49,480 --> 00:37:56,480
Speaker 1: out there somewhere that's funny. Nobody talking about that's the

910
00:37:56,520 --> 00:37:57,040
Speaker 1: fair funt.

911
00:37:58,360 --> 00:38:00,120
Speaker 4: But you know, and I'm not saying that to but

912
00:38:00,160 --> 00:38:02,640
Speaker 4: I'm just saying, you can build a habit of excellence

913
00:38:02,640 --> 00:38:04,560
Speaker 4: and that that's how that's how you'll be viewed. Right,

914
00:38:04,680 --> 00:38:06,920
Speaker 4: and so I think anybody can achieve. You just have

915
00:38:07,000 --> 00:38:09,600
Speaker 4: to build these habits. Yeah, right, So it's really more

916
00:38:09,640 --> 00:38:11,200
Speaker 4: motivation to people who were listening.

917
00:38:11,440 --> 00:38:12,520
Speaker 1: Was coming from Nigeria.

918
00:38:12,560 --> 00:38:14,080
Speaker 3: You know, you say your dad was a neurologists, a

919
00:38:14,120 --> 00:38:16,279
Speaker 3: reagi mom was a pharmacist where they have said, you

920
00:38:16,360 --> 00:38:19,080
Speaker 3: didn't stay in like that that field in some way

921
00:38:19,120 --> 00:38:19,719
Speaker 3: shape or for him.

922
00:38:19,800 --> 00:38:22,040
Speaker 4: Like my parents were always just like, whatever you do,

923
00:38:22,239 --> 00:38:24,480
Speaker 4: just be the best at it. That was that's all

924
00:38:24,480 --> 00:38:26,359
Speaker 4: they ever cared about. When when I when we got

925
00:38:26,360 --> 00:38:28,760
Speaker 4: to America, we went to we lived in Springfield, Illinois.

926
00:38:29,440 --> 00:38:31,000
Speaker 4: I remember we went to go get a haircut and

927
00:38:31,120 --> 00:38:34,560
Speaker 4: the barber, Barbier's name was Fresh, the barber, and Fresh

928
00:38:34,680 --> 00:38:35,959
Speaker 4: was driving an S Class Benz.

929
00:38:36,040 --> 00:38:38,400
Speaker 1: Even though it's a barber and Nigeria. That's unheard of, right,

930
00:38:38,520 --> 00:38:39,640
Speaker 1: a barber driving a Benz.

931
00:38:40,280 --> 00:38:43,640
Speaker 4: But my dad's point when we saw that was in America,

932
00:38:43,760 --> 00:38:46,000
Speaker 4: if you're the best at whatever you do, whatever it is,

933
00:38:46,560 --> 00:38:48,439
Speaker 4: you can do really well, you can have a nice life,

934
00:38:48,560 --> 00:38:49,600
Speaker 4: you can build.

935
00:38:49,400 --> 00:38:50,120
Speaker 1: Something for yourself.

936
00:38:50,400 --> 00:38:52,600
Speaker 4: They were just like, what you choose whatever you want,

937
00:38:52,680 --> 00:38:55,359
Speaker 4: but aimed to be the best at it, right, which

938
00:38:55,400 --> 00:38:57,320
Speaker 4: I think is good advice because people have different interests.

939
00:38:57,840 --> 00:39:00,080
Speaker 4: Not everybody's gonna be care about finance. Not everybody is

940
00:39:00,120 --> 00:39:01,400
Speaker 4: good enough at math to do that. But you might

941
00:39:01,440 --> 00:39:05,200
Speaker 4: be good at something else, you know, whether you might

942
00:39:05,400 --> 00:39:07,600
Speaker 4: start a podcast, maybe you're very good at interviewing people,

943
00:39:07,640 --> 00:39:10,479
Speaker 4: you're very good speaker. You might find some other interest,

944
00:39:10,600 --> 00:39:12,560
Speaker 4: music or whatever. Right, But whatever you do, if you

945
00:39:12,719 --> 00:39:14,680
Speaker 4: if you if you build a mentality that I'm my

946
00:39:14,800 --> 00:39:16,680
Speaker 4: goal is to be the best at it, then you're

947
00:39:16,719 --> 00:39:17,319
Speaker 4: gonna do all right.

948
00:39:17,600 --> 00:39:21,240
Speaker 1: I like this too, man, because it's clear you understand culture.

949
00:39:21,239 --> 00:39:22,880
Speaker 3: Because I can't think of I'm trying to think, who

950
00:39:23,400 --> 00:39:26,520
Speaker 3: have any CEOs and any restaurants come here? I'm really

951
00:39:26,560 --> 00:39:29,760
Speaker 3: trying to think besides Carbone, Oh, Carbone comes in alone.

952
00:39:29,920 --> 00:39:31,359
Speaker 3: I don't want to say no because We've been doing

953
00:39:31,360 --> 00:39:33,360
Speaker 3: it for four years, but is the first that I

954
00:39:33,400 --> 00:39:33,920
Speaker 3: can remember?

955
00:39:33,920 --> 00:39:35,880
Speaker 1: And why is this important to do? Why is it

956
00:39:35,920 --> 00:39:37,920
Speaker 1: important to do? You know, media?

957
00:39:38,560 --> 00:39:40,560
Speaker 4: You got to get the word out, you know, people,

958
00:39:40,760 --> 00:39:43,440
Speaker 4: people need to people don't. I live this every day,

959
00:39:43,480 --> 00:39:45,279
Speaker 4: so I know everything we're doing, but most people don't.

960
00:39:46,000 --> 00:39:47,480
Speaker 4: So somebody's got to tell them.

961
00:39:47,840 --> 00:39:50,759
Speaker 2: Difficult Do they listen to you? Is that difficult? Do

962
00:39:50,840 --> 00:39:51,680
Speaker 2: they listen to? I get?

963
00:39:51,719 --> 00:39:53,440
Speaker 4: I get people listen when I when I if I

964
00:39:53,520 --> 00:39:54,800
Speaker 4: do like a CNN R you know, I did a

965
00:39:54,840 --> 00:39:56,840
Speaker 4: c AN interview, I did a Today's Show interview, or

966
00:39:56,880 --> 00:39:58,680
Speaker 4: I did a Wall Street Journal interview, and those get

967
00:39:58,719 --> 00:40:01,520
Speaker 4: a lot of views. I think people are curious, right, like,

968
00:40:01,600 --> 00:40:04,040
Speaker 4: what's what's going on with this guy? Right, thirty six

969
00:40:04,160 --> 00:40:06,400
Speaker 4: year old CEO? Like, you know, black guy, What's what's up?

970
00:40:06,600 --> 00:40:08,320
Speaker 4: And so they want to there's a curiosity there. But

971
00:40:08,360 --> 00:40:11,160
Speaker 4: that that's fine because that creates attention for the business,

972
00:40:11,160 --> 00:40:13,320
Speaker 4: which what I what I mostly care about, and it

973
00:40:13,440 --> 00:40:15,840
Speaker 4: will please And then what was.

974
00:40:16,360 --> 00:40:19,399
Speaker 6: Good about it is you get to hear what people want,

975
00:40:20,000 --> 00:40:23,480
Speaker 6: like you know, you like, we're talking to you about

976
00:40:23,520 --> 00:40:24,080
Speaker 6: what hour?

977
00:40:24,400 --> 00:40:27,000
Speaker 4: And you guys represent the culture right because you guys speak.

978
00:40:27,040 --> 00:40:28,759
Speaker 4: You guys speak for the culture in a way that

979
00:40:28,840 --> 00:40:30,520
Speaker 4: not a lot of people do. You talk to viewers

980
00:40:30,560 --> 00:40:31,880
Speaker 4: all the time. You hear what people are listening to,

981
00:40:31,880 --> 00:40:33,600
Speaker 4: You see what people are engaging with, what parts of

982
00:40:33,640 --> 00:40:35,839
Speaker 4: the segment. So you guys know, right, and so yeah,

983
00:40:35,920 --> 00:40:37,799
Speaker 4: for sure, it's helpful for me to hear, and it's

984
00:40:37,800 --> 00:40:40,080
Speaker 4: helpful to have a platform to speak and talk about

985
00:40:40,080 --> 00:40:40,279
Speaker 4: some of.

986
00:40:40,280 --> 00:40:42,319
Speaker 1: The things that that we're working on. I do feel

987
00:40:42,360 --> 00:40:44,840
Speaker 1: like there is a room for like just smaller locations.

988
00:40:44,880 --> 00:40:46,680
Speaker 3: Like if I'm sitting here at the radio station and

989
00:40:46,760 --> 00:40:47,960
Speaker 3: I want to go to lunch, but I don't want

990
00:40:47,960 --> 00:40:49,440
Speaker 3: to sit somewhere like I just want to run in

991
00:40:49,920 --> 00:40:52,560
Speaker 3: gravel lobster and shrimp ball real quick. I feel like

992
00:40:52,600 --> 00:40:54,279
Speaker 3: there's room for that because you got food trucks that

993
00:40:54,360 --> 00:40:55,279
Speaker 3: got these lobster.

994
00:40:55,120 --> 00:40:55,960
Speaker 1: Rolls and everything else.

995
00:40:56,160 --> 00:40:59,200
Speaker 4: For sure, if I started the company today, they wouldn't

996
00:40:59,200 --> 00:41:02,239
Speaker 4: be as big as they are. You know, if I

997
00:41:02,239 --> 00:41:03,600
Speaker 4: could stab my finger and shrink all of them, you

998
00:41:03,640 --> 00:41:06,120
Speaker 4: probably would. They were built for a different time now.

999
00:41:06,160 --> 00:41:07,719
Speaker 4: A lot of the business is off premise. It's a

1000
00:41:07,760 --> 00:41:10,480
Speaker 4: lot of grabbing growth. So my point is that we're

1001
00:41:10,560 --> 00:41:12,120
Speaker 4: kind of stuck with the footprint, right.

1002
00:41:12,280 --> 00:41:14,080
Speaker 3: It's not you reach out as a as an African

1003
00:41:14,120 --> 00:41:15,960
Speaker 3: out here right now, who's trying to shrink everything namee

1004
00:41:15,960 --> 00:41:16,720
Speaker 3: of the Elon Musk.

1005
00:41:19,320 --> 00:41:21,799
Speaker 1: Show. The way of doing right.

1006
00:41:23,840 --> 00:41:26,120
Speaker 4: The real estate is is not impossible to change, but

1007
00:41:26,160 --> 00:41:29,200
Speaker 4: it's harder to change and it's expensive to change. If

1008
00:41:29,239 --> 00:41:30,319
Speaker 4: you want to get out of the lease, you need

1009
00:41:30,360 --> 00:41:32,160
Speaker 4: to pay the landlord how many years you got left,

1010
00:41:32,160 --> 00:41:34,239
Speaker 4: how many how many dollars per year times that by

1011
00:41:34,360 --> 00:41:35,239
Speaker 4: thirty percent is probably what.

1012
00:41:35,280 --> 00:41:37,200
Speaker 1: You owe them. And then you got to build a

1013
00:41:37,239 --> 00:41:39,320
Speaker 1: new restaurant. You know that's that's a few million dollars

1014
00:41:39,600 --> 00:41:43,920
Speaker 1: per per unit. So it's it's it's it's a thing

1015
00:41:44,000 --> 00:41:45,440
Speaker 1: that you would do. You just need to.

1016
00:41:45,680 --> 00:41:47,520
Speaker 4: You have limited capital. You got to make decisions. What's

1017
00:41:47,600 --> 00:41:48,239
Speaker 4: what comes first?

1018
00:41:48,760 --> 00:41:48,920
Speaker 1: Right?

1019
00:41:50,080 --> 00:41:52,480
Speaker 4: But for sure, if if if you were starting this

1020
00:41:52,560 --> 00:41:54,320
Speaker 4: company all over, you wouldn't have as big. And that

1021
00:41:54,400 --> 00:41:56,120
Speaker 4: was true for PF Changs too. You know PF Changs

1022
00:41:56,200 --> 00:41:57,680
Speaker 4: was eight nine thousand square feet. The new ones we

1023
00:41:57,760 --> 00:42:00,160
Speaker 4: built were four or five thousand square feet, and you'd

1024
00:42:00,200 --> 00:42:03,400
Speaker 4: probably do the same thing here. And these are bigger,

1025
00:42:03,480 --> 00:42:06,000
Speaker 4: you know, these are closer to ten thousand. So it's

1026
00:42:06,160 --> 00:42:09,160
Speaker 4: It's a good valid point, just a harder thing to fix.

1027
00:42:09,080 --> 00:42:11,000
Speaker 3: Quickly before you get out of it, because you already

1028
00:42:11,000 --> 00:42:13,080
Speaker 3: gave the CEO. Look back to your people to wrap

1029
00:42:13,080 --> 00:42:17,479
Speaker 3: it up. What's your involvement with HPCU. What's we're allowed

1030
00:42:17,480 --> 00:42:18,280
Speaker 3: to do with HPCU.

1031
00:42:18,440 --> 00:42:23,240
Speaker 4: Yeah, look, so I mean before that, Darden the founder

1032
00:42:23,280 --> 00:42:26,319
Speaker 4: of Red Lobster, Bill Darden, who Darden Company is named after.

1033
00:42:26,360 --> 00:42:29,080
Speaker 4: That's Olive Garden, Texas, Longhorne, et cetera. So he's an

1034
00:42:29,080 --> 00:42:32,480
Speaker 4: important restaurant tour in American history. The first restaurant that

1035
00:42:32,560 --> 00:42:36,400
Speaker 4: he opened was Red Lobster, and that from the very beginning,

1036
00:42:36,800 --> 00:42:39,280
Speaker 4: had a really good relationship with the Black American community.

1037
00:42:39,400 --> 00:42:41,000
Speaker 4: This is in sixty eight, so at the very end

1038
00:42:41,040 --> 00:42:43,240
Speaker 4: of the Civil Rights movement, but from the very beginning,

1039
00:42:43,480 --> 00:42:45,960
Speaker 4: black people were welcome to eat there, welcome to work there.

1040
00:42:46,160 --> 00:42:49,120
Speaker 4: And that was stansit he took from the very beginning.

1041
00:42:49,680 --> 00:42:52,320
Speaker 4: So it's always had a good relationship with Black America

1042
00:42:52,480 --> 00:42:55,520
Speaker 4: from the start. You mentioned Beyonce mess flavor. Flav It's

1043
00:42:55,520 --> 00:42:59,279
Speaker 4: always had a position in culture. I'm just acknowledging it

1044
00:42:59,400 --> 00:43:01,920
Speaker 4: and speaking to it and and doing more for that

1045
00:43:02,160 --> 00:43:06,000
Speaker 4: to try to build that so HBCUs we did Band

1046
00:43:06,040 --> 00:43:08,439
Speaker 4: of the Year, right, We went to watch the band's

1047
00:43:08,480 --> 00:43:12,320
Speaker 4: perform B move one miles one for the junior division,

1048
00:43:13,480 --> 00:43:15,960
Speaker 4: and we gave the awards out. We sponsored it Red Lobster,

1049
00:43:16,200 --> 00:43:18,480
Speaker 4: and you know, millions of dollars went to scholarships and

1050
00:43:18,760 --> 00:43:19,200
Speaker 4: things like that.

1051
00:43:19,760 --> 00:43:21,000
Speaker 1: So we're gonna do more. You know.

1052
00:43:21,080 --> 00:43:23,359
Speaker 4: That's a start, but it's it's important community. It's one

1053
00:43:23,400 --> 00:43:26,680
Speaker 4: that has been connected to the brand for a long

1054
00:43:26,760 --> 00:43:29,160
Speaker 4: time and it's a good place to spend time and

1055
00:43:29,200 --> 00:43:30,240
Speaker 4: spend money on our behalf.

1056
00:43:30,680 --> 00:43:33,040
Speaker 2: All right, well, we appreciate you for joining us and

1057
00:43:33,080 --> 00:43:33,920
Speaker 2: bringing us some biscuits.

1058
00:43:34,040 --> 00:43:35,600
Speaker 1: Yeah, enjoy, Thank you so much.

1059
00:43:35,760 --> 00:43:37,200
Speaker 3: Whatever we can do to help, man, I mean, I

1060
00:43:37,280 --> 00:43:39,600
Speaker 3: want to see you succeed. I appreciate it if people

1061
00:43:39,719 --> 00:43:42,040
Speaker 3: like you succeed, and that just means more successful the rest.

1062
00:43:42,160 --> 00:43:42,800
Speaker 1: I appreciate that.

1063
00:43:42,880 --> 00:43:45,000
Speaker 4: Yeah, visit your local at Red Lobster. You guys, send

1064
00:43:45,040 --> 00:43:47,279
Speaker 4: feedback and we'll keep we'll.

1065
00:43:47,239 --> 00:43:52,440
Speaker 2: Keep improving going this week it Adam Loan, Yes, you

1066
00:43:52,560 --> 00:43:54,680
Speaker 2: know that. All right, there we go. It's the Breakfast Club.

1067
00:43:55,440 --> 00:43:58,600
Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club