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Main Street Reimagined Podcast
This is a podcast for dreamers, creators, developers, and entrepreneurs to learn, share, and be inspired to change your community through small business.
Main Street Reimagined Podcast
Episode 26: Family Business, Community Engagement, and Restaurant Innovation with Brad Winner
Brad Winner, a seasoned entrepreneur literally raised in the food and beverage industry, joins us on the Main Street Reimagined podcast to share his journey from growing up in a family-run grocery and restaurant business to transforming a small-town dive bar into a vibrant eatery. With stories that take us from snow-filled parking lots to the bustling kitchen of Mixx 165, Brad reveals the lessons learned and the values instilled by his parents. We explore the complexities of family business dynamics and how these early experiences shaped Brad's understanding of teamwork, leadership, and business etiquette.
Our conversation also navigates Brad's ambitious efforts in Mechanicsburg, a small village where he turned a dive bar into a quality restaurant that caters to the community's needs. We discuss the strategic steps taken to engage the local community, such as leveraging social media and creative marketing tactics, while maintaining authenticity and a strong local focus. Brad shares practical insights into menu planning, hiring creative talent, and the importance of community feedback in evolving and adapting his business to meet customer needs and remain relevant in the ever-changing restaurant industry.
As we wrap up, Brad delves into the challenges faced by modern restaurateurs, from staffing issues and rising costs to effectively managing time and resources. His experiences offer valuable lessons on the significance of effective leadership, communication, and market research, providing listeners with actionable advice and inspiration. Brad's story is a testament to the power of family legacy, community engagement, and the relentless drive to innovate, offering a helpful playbook for anyone involved in or inspired by the food and beverage industry.
Guest Links:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/MIXX165
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Henry Development Group:
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Website: www.henrydevelopmentgroup.com
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Luke Henry:
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You have to make them a part of your team, man.
Speaker 2:And otherwise they're going to be gone fast. And so, like just popping back there and hanging out with the dishwasher for 20 minutes when you have time and getting to know them, making them feel heard, I think it helps keep that culture, because a busy restaurant can be a very toxic place if you let it.
Speaker 1:This is the Main Street Reimagined podcast, a show for people ready to turn visions into realities and ideas into businesses. Hey, I'm Luke Henry and each week I lead conversations with Main Street dreamers who took the leap to launch a business, renovate a building or start a movement, their ideas, their mindsets and their inspirations, as well as some of the highs and lows along the way. This is a place for dreamers, creators, developers and entrepreneurs to learn, share and be inspired to change your community through small business. Enjoy the show.
Speaker 3:Hey friends, luke Henry here. This is the Main Street Reimagined podcast. Enjoy the show. Other places around Ohio and just we're going to do some traveling and we're going to have some folks here in Marion in the studio and just kind of mix things up. And so my guest today is Brad Winter. Brad is a friend of mine that we met. We were reminiscing back around the beginning of COVID, back when things were so crazy for a lot of people, and we've stayed in touch through the years here and I've visited him and seen some of his work and met some of his family and I'm just really excited to have you on the podcast today, brad, to share some of that with our listeners as well.
Speaker 2:Awesome. Well, thanks for having me, luke, I appreciate it.
Speaker 3:It's always great to connect as you said we navigated COVID together and luckily we're on this side of it and through that time, those of us that made it through and had businesses through that time especially in food service and some of those businesses that you and your family are in man learned a lot of lessons through there. I'm sure we could unpack, but we'll focus on the present day here a little bit. But before we do that, I want you to kind of set the stage for our listeners here, if you wouldn't mind sharing your backstory, how you got down the road to where you are today, where you started and some of those stops along the way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I think this is where I connect with a lot of independent business folks. I grew up in the family business. I've been in the food and beverage industry for 18 years. I took like a one-year hiatus to valet cars in college, but that was at a restaurant too, so I don't know that I technically got out of the industry at that point.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so growing up my dad ran and owned grocery stores. So while all of my buddies were asleep on Saturday morning I was pushing carts in the snow at like 12. So I've done every unpleasant job imaginable in all of our businesses, from stocking shelves, cleaning bathrooms, hiring, managing payroll, you know. So it's been a an education in and of itself and obviously, navigating it all with your family, different dynamics that go on day to day. So, yeah it's. You know, currently we we operate in Clark, logan and Champaign counties.
Speaker 2:We've got grocery stores, gas stations, qsr it's a international brand, qsr and then we've got, uh, our restaurant mix one 65 as well, and that's probably the the, the single business that I ended up talking most about, because that's the one that I've been like very integral in launching from the ground up. Uh, some of the other stuff was already by the time I was in my adult stage was was already in operation. It was just kind of helped keep was already, by the time I was in my adult stage, was already in operation. It just kind of helped keep it on the right track there. So yeah, you know, food and beverage, years and years and years and years it's been an evolution, seeing all the trends come and go. I mean we were talking before we sat down here a lot about just where the restaurant industry is right now and kind of how it has evolved and where we anticipate it evolving.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's. I mean I've heard different parts of your story kind of through through different conversations, but you know my understanding. Let's let's talk a little bit about, I mean you, your dad really kind of established the family business and he worked his way into it and I think that gave him a certain mindset through doing all of that and then he passed that along and certainly the work ethic as well that comes with family business and small business. I mean, tell us kind of that story in terms of how he got into the grocery business and owning those stores and then talk a little bit about what you know a little more in detail about what life was like growing up in that family business and what that looked like for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so my mom and dad both actively were, you know my mom was, you know had served tables, you know managed restaurants all through you know her life, and my dad was the same but in the in the grocery industry, uh, he worked for a um operator that had several locations, uh, primarily in Clark County. His name was Howard Dodds. He he's, you know, recently deceased and he learned a lot from him. He worked for another gentleman named Bill Bill Trout wine that was based out of Urbana, so he had, you know that, trial by fire as well. As he worked for some pretty, pretty demanding folks and you know that that's when he likes to say the grocery industry was at its prime and you know there was, there wasn't as many Kroger's Meyers, these national you know, chain stores that you see everywhere now.
Speaker 2:So like hearing his stories about how creative they got to be with with some of their merchandising and marketing and promotion and stuff like that was, it was pretty cool and I wish I could have experienced that firsthand. But but yeah, as you said, you know, dad, dad was in the grocery retail side, uh, pretty much my whole life. So, uh, some of my earliest memories uh go back to, you know, car shows at some of the grocery stores that they had put on for marketing purposes or they used to do. They called them like grocery games and not like guys' grocery games, but they'd see who the fastest bagger and checker and stalker and stuff like that was. So that was a pretty cool experience and that we're talking about that might be a cool thing to to to bring back and reinvigorate.
Speaker 2:Um, but yeah, I mean it's, it's. Things have changed so much in all of these industries, uh, and some of that is just due to generational changes, like what was normal for us, uh, what, what it would be considered extremely abnormal to the generations before us. But, yeah, being being in it firsthand, um, you know, your, your family's, very involved in your business now, and I think some of what you guys are going through is similar to like what I went through as a, as a teenager is there's only so many hours in the day, and so how do you fairly slice that day up?
Speaker 2:And so, uh, I had two brothers as well. So kind of with my parents navigating that. As teenagers it feels like you know, if something goes off the rails at one of the buildings, you're the last line of defense stops.
Speaker 2:Right, you gotta you gotta go get to it, um, because not only is like the business itself need your attention, but all of the people that are working in that individual business. You owe them, you know that respect level to go fix those problems for them so that they have a, you know, a, seamless work experience as well. So I think you know much, like you know many folks just navigating that. And as an adult, talking to my dad now, I obviously I can tell that you know there's times where he wishes he could have been at something that he wasn't, um, but that's not to say that we didn't get, you know, plenty of family time. You can kind of create your own schedule within reason, as long as everything goes to plan. So, uh, we had plenty of plenty of that.
Speaker 2:Uh, you know quality family bonding, um, but yeah, it just things, things get challenging. You throw brothers in that, that sibling rivalry that we were discussing, into the, into the equation and, uh, you know there's there can be some tumultuous times there and, uh, you know, at the end of the day, you're still family and you're still, you know, business partners. So, um, making sure to have a short memory, I think there is, is is really important. Everyone's going to say stuff out of anger. That you know they wouldn't say otherwise and and you know being respectful enough to each other to give them space when they are frustrated, I think is really important in that dynamic. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, navigating, uh, the whole family business dynamic is is definitely challenging. We've had some other guests on that, have talked some about that. But you know, for I just feel like you have a unique perspective in that your family was operating multiple businesses and you've been doing it together now for for quite some time. I mean, obviously, obviously, as a teenager you weren't necessarily, you know quote in the business perhaps, and I think that I've heard you say that it was not necessarily your intention to stick with the family business. And yet here you are, as well as your brothers, and so you know, you're continuing to do business together and even looking at the next iteration of kind of succession planning for your dad and mom, maybe phasing out and you guys taking on more and more of those responsibilities.
Speaker 3:But I'm curious, as we kind of, you know, rewind to some of those growing up years, like how intentional was your dad or your mom in having, like you know, business conversations? Was there like intentional conversations that you would have, you know, were you asking a lot of questions or was it just sort of like they were in survival mode and just like you were an extra set of hands sometimes and you just had to do what you had to do to get through. I mean, what did that look like and what was that evolution?
Speaker 2:Yeah, there were definitely like seasons which you know, felt, you know, a lot more intentional, and then seasons that felt like flying by the seat of our pants just making sure things were covered. But I think the benefit is, like you know, firstly, working for him as an employee. I think we're probably a little higher than standards for some of some of my coworkers, um, you know, and that being said, is like I got to learn the firsthand employee dynamic. But, uh, my work they didn't generally end when my shift was over if he was still there. So, you know, getting to see him, I think, in professional settings, even if I wasn't actively participating in that meeting or whatever, if I happened to be there, just seeing it all take place in front of me was an education in and of itself. And you know, I'm sure your kids end up sitting in on conversations that were not planned, um, but I think that, uh, you know how you handle yourself in a professional setting. I think a lot of that is just optical. You watch it happen, you, you learn it by osmosis, versus like having somebody like instruct every, every part of your etiquette. So I think some of it was just like, you know, secondhand Um, and my dad actually coached a lot of us in sports.
Speaker 2:So his life was like dual insanity and like as a parent. Now I have no clue how they had any time to manage us on top of all the the work obligations. So, uh, he was. They were super intentional, like about when it was family time, making sure that it could be family time, but, as you know, it takes one phone call to throw a Sunday dinner um off course. So, uh, yeah, yeah, I'd say.
Speaker 2:I'd say for the most part, they navigated it well.
Speaker 2:There was a stint, probably when I was like roughly 16, where my dad was getting out of his existing business partnership and he took a kind of a hybrid job at one of our wholesalers while he was buying his first location while him and my mom were buying their first location, was buying his first location while he, him and my mom were buying their first location.
Speaker 2:That was probably, to memory, one of the most challenging times, because he was actively working for another company while my mom was running the store that we had just purchased but he was still handling like all the admin roles for it, so that there was like a two year period there. That was just there was no time for anybody and we were talking about sports and how demanding those can be and as a teenage athlete both my brothers were teenage athletes it felt like we didn't see each other on the weekends for a couple years there. But, as I said, it was all kind of a temporary season and the family benefited from it. So obviously there's no hard feelings on it, just things evolve and you got to make decisions, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah Well, I mean it sounds like you look back on it fondly, I mean, even though, like that was a tough time, it sounds like for your family and certainly for your parents, trying to operate businesses and do life and all of that at the same time. And I think some of us find ourselves in that whirlwind sometimes. But you know, just hearing your perspective now as an adult to look back, I mean you kind of knew what was going on. You knew that your parents had the long-term best interest of the family in mind while they were trying to kind of grind it out there for a little while and doing what needed done and ultimately you came back to the business. So you know, let's talk a little bit more about that journey. I mean I know that you kind of like had some music in there that you were doing in college and all of that. So talk us through that a little bit and again kind of how that road came back to the family business after all.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was, uh, it was quite quite an evolution, and I think you know we've we've talked to enough in previous conversations like, uh, as a teenager, I was kind of uh up to ornery things on a regular basis, so, uh, I, I made life exceptionally more challenging than it had to be for everybody, um and and so, growing up in a small town, uh, I think a lot of people can, you know, feel, feel the same way as I do about it is like when you're a teenager and there's not much to do, you think that a big city is your answer. And you're gonna.
Speaker 2:I'm going to go, have so much to do and, uh, you know, I left Urbana, went over to Columbus for a better part of a decade and I was really active in the music scene over there and playing music is great, had a blast doing it, but it's late nights generally doesn't pay well. The joke I'm on our arts council board as well is a lot of folks want to pay you with exposure, and exposure doesn't pay bills or feed you, so it was just kind of a natural evolution. I was at Ohio state and I would like to think that I'm I'm pretty intelligent, but school was not my cup of tea. You know, being forced to sit in a class and spend time on things that I didn't feel like I needed to know didn't sit extremely well with me. So we my dad called me one day and he was like hey, I'm buying another location and you're kind of at that crossroads of do you want to? You want to be a college educated man or you want to get into the business world.
Speaker 2:And I made the decision then to step back in and help them expand operations. We were going from two locations to three, which then went from three to four and then back from four to three because we sold another location, so that two-year period there there was just a lot of buildings, a lot of construction projects. So I wanted to be there to help support him and I'm very thankful that I did, because it put me on a path that I didn't initially intend to. I've been said, I made a lot of connections with musicians and folks in the music industry that have actually still continued to benefit me today. It's amazing the crossroad between music and dining, but yeah, it's been a kind of cool experience, yeah yeah.
Speaker 3:So you came back into the grocery side of the business and then ultimately you mentioned Mix 165, which is your full service restaurant in Mechanicsburg, and so I want to spend some time talking about that. I mean because, as you said, that's kind of been your project, that you've really seen it all the way through, and it seems like it's been much more of kind of your thing than just, you know, dad's thing that I'm kind of working within. So talk a little bit about you know, first of all, the decision to start that and you know what went into that, and then let's talk about some some of that journey along the way. Yeah Well, Mix again.
Speaker 2:I'm going to plug it here.
Speaker 3:I don't like being the guy who's talking about what it is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so Mix 165, it's kind of a gastropub styled restaurant in Mechanicsburg. A lot of folks here probably aren't familiar with Mechanicsburg because it's a very, very small village in Champaign County. It's roughly 15 minutes east of Urbana or roughly 35 minutes west of downtown Columbus. So I think the story of Columbus is also shaping the story of Mechanicsburg and Champaign County, which I'm sure we'll dive into that eventually. But the story mix is like we own a large gas station right beside it and what we like to do is we either like to find small grocery stores or large gas stations and then we turn them more into like markets to fill a void that you know, a lot of these small towns it's family dollar and there's no other like grocery option. So by buying like a large gas station we can fill it out more like a market. We put delis in them A lot of them have hot delis in them, so and then we operate it as a gas station as well, um, and ultimately, ultimately it acts as a, as a win-win for for both the business model but also for the community Um, community, because not everybody wants to drive 20 minutes to shop for groceries, especially if you just need one or two items. So we kind of fill that void in between their normal grocery trips. So, anyhow, we had the marathon there.
Speaker 2:And then there was a dive bar next door. That word had gotten to us. That was, you know, going to close down for business and we really didn't want another dive bar to open up right beside us. Uh, and we've been given advice for a long time that says always buy your neighbor's property if it's available. And so it was good advice, yeah. So we uh went ahead and bought that and we were in conversations as to what to do with it.
Speaker 2:Um, at that point in time, well, still to this day we're the only place to buy a beer in town and I didn't want to take that option away from, you know, the folks of Mechanicsburg. So dad had thrown around a couple of concept ideas that didn't have alcohol as part of the uh program and I was just like I feel like we'd really be doing a disservice to town and obviously I don't want it to turn into a dive bar. I don't want to do dollar shots and all of that. We wanted to focus on more of a quality restaurant that had a bar versus a bar that had a minor food program. And at that point in time that was like 2017, we bought that property and I started, you know, sending feelers out to people like, hey, you know, what would you like to see, what would you like to see? And obviously, when you do that, it ranges from you know taco bell to fine dining.
Speaker 2:And so uh, didn't get a whole lot of fruitful uh data from that, but uh, so we did. My family does this. Anytime we take on a new project, we all kind of go see it, just talk about it for a couple hours while we're in the space, and then we have a series of sit downs after that and then just try to start hammering out just little chunks. We started on the construction side of it because this building needed quite a bit of attention before we really focused much on the concept of it. So we went in and we were like okay, we know we want it to be a sit-down restaurant, so we started splicing up the space and then we got to the back and then it was time.
Speaker 2:As you know, when you start to lay out a kitchen, all the equipment you purchase is kind of dependent on what your menu and your concept is. So we navigated that and, uh, obviously, the food scene in 2018 in Champaign County compared to the food scene in, you know, 2025 in Champaign County is like night and day difference. So, um, we brought a concept to the table that offered some what we consider like more vanilla options, but then they could evolve it to higher quality dining options just through series of add-ons or whatever, and we wanted to meet the customers where they were and then start taking them on the mix 165 journey is once they trust us, like okay, their normal menu is fine, it's good, it's great quality.
Speaker 2:Now we're going to start tasting some of their features and some of their limited offerings and some of their burgers a month, and so then we just started getting creative with it and, as we've always discussed, is like hiring the right people is like half the battle, and so we have a team of just like super creative talent that we think it is a benefit of the job to just like hey, you got a crazy burger like meet this price point, throw whatever toppings on it. You got a crazy burger like meet this price point, throw whatever toppings on it, and then we'll roll with it. And now that the customers have, you know, ate with us enough and they trust what we're doing, it's a lot easier to get them to try the artwork versus the vanilla offerings. So we're getting ready to launch our 2025 menu in March and we're having a lot of fun with it right now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, well, it's now. Yeah, yeah, well, it's a great spot. I've had the pleasure of not only eating there but also spending a little bit of time with you there, kind of going behind the scenes. I mean, I've seen it. You know, I do encourage people to go there, actually, believe it or not. Mechanicsburg is, I think, like, especially, you know, like local Marion people actually make that drive like quite a bit. I know I do, because it's kind of like the back way to Dayton, yeah, from Marion, you know, through Route 4 there, so I always stop at the gas station there.
Speaker 3:And if I have time I'll go to the restaurant or at least go in and, you know, get a sandwich from the deli or whatever. You know, it is super convenient option there. So anyway, a little plug for those that are traveling from Marion that, uh, you've probably seen it there before and maybe not realized what it is, but it is actually a real hidden gem.
Speaker 2:Um, you know, fairly unassuming from the outside, and that was the goal is we, like my dad and I, when we travel, we like to find those spots that are like we think they represent the identity of the community more than like you know what you're getting into when you walk into a Skyline or a McDonald's or a Chipotle. And we want to. Really, when we're traveling, we want to immerse ourselves in whatever that community is, and so that's what we've tried to do is like listen to what our community members like, what works, what's selling, and then just compound on that so that hopefully, when people think of Mechanicsburg or Champaign County, they're thinking of you know us as part of that part of that story as well.
Speaker 3:Yeah Well, and so for people that aren't familiar with Mechanicsburg, I mean, how? What's the population of mechanicsburg proper?
Speaker 3:roughly 1600 yeah so I mean very small, uh, does have a little bit of a downtown there which you're like just like a block away and um, so you know we've talked before like you felt, like you know, probably a Probably a population of 1,600 is not going to support a 60, 70-seat restaurant, and so you knew that you had to have some appeal from outside of that. So I mean, again, kind of thinking back to the early days, I mean we can look at it today. It's great, you've done a fantastic job. It's consistently busy. You know it's got a really diverse menu that's continuing to, you know, kind of evolve and really have some cool items on. But you know, just starting out, like how was that received by the local community? How did you get the word out to places beyond just the immediate, you know village, and you know how have you, you know, continued to build through the years?
Speaker 2:Well, as we've. You know, as we discussed early, a lot of it's faith, too is like because if you focus on all the hurdles like, you'll just psych yourself out of even doing it.
Speaker 2:So I think that first crazy leap of faith and, you know, having beliefs that you know God's going to kind of put it in your path to succeed, I think that is is getting your, your mind right first, you know, cause that was the very first thing I was like. I was like how do we keep people in this building, like throughout the week, like Friday, saturday, sure, like I see people traveling? At that point in time, you know, it was really like data. I want to go grab as much data as I can find and, as you know, there is a thing as too much data. So I went to just Google first. It's like how far are people willing to drive to eat? And at that point in time and it's actually gone down post-COVID, at that point in time it was up to an hour and 25 minutes that people were willing to sit in a car and go dine.
Speaker 2:So I was like, okay, like now let's draw a circle on the map as to you know, realistically, where will people travel from for us. And uh, then it was like let's look at the demographics of all of the areas around us, not just us, cause we know that, back to like, meeting our customers where they were is we knew that our, you know, tuesday customer might not be our Friday customer, right, right and and so, like having LTOs, the limited time offers and features that are only available for a short period of time that allows you to create customer frequency but also to kind of play with your appeal. Um, and I'll honestly, in 2018, like Facebook was relatively unsaturated with like restaurant marketing. Now it's like boom, every, everything that you scroll on there's like you see a steak or a burger or chicken wings or something. So I think the timing of it was relatively convenient as well as like we were kind of the only people in our immediate market that were playing a strong like social strategy.
Speaker 2:So, and a lot of with social media is like people get kind of torn up with their analytics. They're like so focused on the likes and engagement that they forget that like part of marketing is just repetition. Part of marketing is just repetition, and so it may take somebody 30 times seeing content from your brand for the for for whatever that piece of content to slowly, like you know, become relevant to them is like you may post something about cheeseburgers forever and they're vegetarian, and then you drop you know Buffalo chicken or a sorry Buffalo cauliflower tacos, and then they just like, oh, we've got to go give it a try. And so, uh, to those folks who are in the industry or thinking about getting in the industry is like, social media is definitely important, but finding a unique way to play it, um and not, uh, you know, over leaning towards any particular form of content, I think is important as well. And, uh, we made a conscious decision not to go down like the Snapchat, tiktok route. Um, I had a conversation with a gentleman who is in kind of the social media sphere and he was like, well, those are global platforms and you're a geographically tied business. So if you go build a massive Snapchat following by doing videos or TikTok following by building videos, you may never see any return for that. So we made the conscious decision to really lean into Facebook as our primary platform to to reach folks, and it still seems to be the low hanging fruit in the social media world right now.
Speaker 2:Um, and then, you know, all honesty is like community engagement is probably the number one most beneficial thing that business operators could, could, lean into, and that varies in form. Um, you know, sometimes it's joining your local chamber and going to those events, depending on what your concept is and who your customer is. And then, uh, you know, sometimes, like for us, we do, uh, I call it our good eats initiative. It's a dine to donate program, and we started that in like 2019. And to date, we've, you know, cut about $75,000 worth of checks to nonprofit organizations, school programs, community causes.
Speaker 2:You know, when the tornadoes hit Indian Lake, we also have businesses up there, so we, so we did a fundraising campaign through the restaurant to help raise money for disaster relief up there, and I think it's a good thing, because a lot of folks, especially your customers, they want to be involved in some of that, but they may not have the time or know who to contact. So for them, it's just a simple way of like, you know, I'm going to go spend a hundred dollars at dinner tonight and 15% of that's going to you know, whatever that organization is. So I think it's a win-win for everybody. And and again, being in a position where you can help your community is something as a business operator I think we need to, you know, put really high on our list of priorities when we're operating is like how is what I'm doing impact my neighbors and the people directly around us?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, we've talked about that a little bit before, and I mean that's just a really smart way to go about it, and I think it also. It has to be authentic, though, right. I mean it can't just be appear to be another marketing initiative. So how is it that you feel like you've been able to do that with, with heart? You know, not just you know just it be a purely marketing play.
Speaker 2:Right and I mean there is a level of I guess you know selfishness to it. If there is any benefit to you. But again, anytime you do a good deed you should expect to see no return. And if you do cool, I think people can tell it's like if they know like the school has been.
Speaker 2:A major focus on us is growing up in a rural community, is, you know, sometimes there's the schools just don't have the funding to put on certain events or offer certain programs or it ends up falling back on the student or the parent to kind of pay the difference.
Speaker 2:So pretty much all of the major sports we try to partner with throughout the year in some capacity to raise money and so I think, like they know that our mission is to help keep the school in a, you know, financially to the best of our ability. Obviously we're not the only players in town. There's other people that are helping the school as well. But uh, and then they see at the events and I think, like showing up, even when you know there's not something in it for you matters as well and as somebody who grew up there, it's, it's not hard to you know, not something in it for you matters as well, and, as somebody who grew up there, it's it's not hard to you know, attend the events and support the organizations that support you. Um, so I think I think a lot of it's just again not not just writing on it as like the marketing post at the end of it, where it's like hey, look what we did so.
Speaker 2:I think just the the focus on being about for the students or for the cause and focusing on the cause is the most important piece there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean it seems like at the end of the day, like as long as it's a win for the organization that you're trying to help, like it could be a win for you too. Like I mean, hopefully everyone sees that, like multiple people can win in a scenario and that's a good thing. It doesn't have to be like a win-loss, it doesn't have to be zero-sum it can be.
Speaker 2:Everybody wins and everybody feels really good about being part of the support. Well, and, as I said, I think most people want to be a part of something that's doing good. It's just as we know there's only so many hours in the day, so if you can make it simple for somebody to also help contribute. Like and that was our focus is like we know all these organizations need money and we all know there's people out there that want to give it to them, but a lot of fundraising strategies or or events are relatively one-off events and so they need a bunch of volunteers or a bunch of sponsors or a bunch of this. So we wanted to put a program together. It was just like hey, look, help us get the word out, we'll get some folks in here and hopefully we'll get you some money and uh, it's.
Speaker 3:It's been a pretty mutually beneficial strategy thus far, yeah, and you've done enough of those events over enough years that you've also made some friends along the way. I mean, hey, look, there probably were people that showed up for those events that never walked through your door before, yep, and then that was a great opportunity for them to be like, wow, I didn't realize this was a nice place just driving by. We're going to have to come back, you know, maybe bring some friends next weekend, because we had a really great experience.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because we had a really great experience. Yeah, and that's again. Anytime you can get people in your building to connect with your staff and your brand and the way you operate, it's a good opportunity. And so there's times where community events happen around us that we have nothing to do with, but our goal is to be at our best when we're given the opportunity to. So getting your staff ready for all of it, I think, is a major point of importance as well as, like if you're busy and everybody's grumpy and nobody wants to be there, the likelihood that you're going to get any return traffic from anything is going to be minimal.
Speaker 2:So building that culture around like hey, regardless of whether we're busy or slow today, everybody's at their best, everybody's, you know, putting their best foot forward, I think that is, you know, getting everyone geared, is really important for it as well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, what great advice. I mean, that's so easy when you know, just as business owners, when we're in the in the thick of battle and trying to to get things done, you know forget to to make sure everybody's got got the right attitude. Yeah, and you know, it's like, hey, this is a fundraiser for a really good cause. Like, let's make sure that we're all showing up, because these people are coming in, they want to feel good about what they're doing and you've got to be part of helping them feel good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think, like as a manager or owner, like just bringing that to the table as often as you can, is really important.
Speaker 2:Now, don't get me wrong, there's days that the everything around you is feels like it's on fire and and and you're going to have a frustrating day. But, um, like trying to bring that attitude of positivity and understanding to your staff then makes it easier for them to extend that to their coworkers and then their customers, to their coworkers and then their customers, because there tends to be in the restaurant industry a front of house, back of house strife that goes on, and that was the very first thing that we were like. This is not part of our cultural identity in this building. You guys are all on the same team. I can't have my chefs yelling at the server and then the server takes that energy out to the floor for the customers. So, yeah, just looking at points of improvement, I guess with your relationship with your team, but also their relationships with each other, has been a pretty beneficial strategy for us as well Day to day.
Speaker 3:I mean, what has that looked like in terms of how you're building that culture, how you're getting that messaging out? Is that like a pre-meal meeting every day? Is that a weekly meeting, a monthly meeting, like? What does that look like? Again, if there's somebody out there that they're like shoot, I gotta, I gotta start doing this. My culture is not what I want in my restaurant or establishment, what can they start doing? You know what? What for you, at least in terms of how you're messaging that to your team.
Speaker 2:So we don't I don't do a whole lot of, like, big staff meetings. We have done them in the past, especially when we first got started. We did a lot of them because we're learning with them and, as we've discussed, every restaurant and every town is an entirely different model, different beast, different struggle, like everyone's dumpsters in a different place, like all your systems are going to be different, and so, like when you're a new restaurant, you're making a lot of changes to try to like stay ahead of, like the challenges that you're seeing in front of you in real time. And so that communicating all of those changes is really important. Because, like when people come into work first two years of a restaurant, like every two months, like there's significant changes in where stuff is or how stuff's functioning. Or you know, I told you that our kitchen, we evolved it like five times before we got to opening day. So just communicating that's really important. But also, like when you see a persistent problem is like address it in real time but then also add it to your meeting notes.
Speaker 2:So, uh, great managers that I've experienced, um, and my dad kind of ingrained this in me there's a book called the one minute manager. In the book is like uh, I don't know hour read, man, it's tiny. So it basically advocates for, instead of having a bunch of big formal meetings, you're just you're meeting with people in very small increments of time all the time. So walk through the door positive attitude, approach your people with hey, how's everything going today? Just a quick and like sometimes they're going to give you the sob story about you, know they had a flat tire or whatever, but that's fine, they need to vent that as well. But what you're wanting to get to is like do they have all the tools they need to succeed at their job today?
Speaker 2:And so that servant leadership piece is like very important, but also like it lets you know that you're there, even if you can't be there all the time.
Speaker 2:If they know like at some point I'm going to talk to him this week, they won't blast you with problems in real time. They will hold that problem for you for that moment that you talk to them, and then you can address it in much more of a productive manner than somebody sending you a snide text message at. You know eight o'clock in the morning, right when you wake up. So it just lets them know that you're there and you know, when you start getting into multiple buildings, that's when it starts to get a little tricky, because then you're trying to teach that strategy to other people and not everybody has the same level of communication. Willingness is like some people want to go to work and just not talk to anybody, get through the day and go home. So again, trying to ingrain that into your leaders is really important, because the worst thing is to and I say this with our dishwashers, because dishwashers is like the hardest role to fill Um, because you know it's generally high school kids doesn't pay a ton Um hard work.
Speaker 3:You have to make them a part of your team, man.
Speaker 2:And otherwise they're going to be gone fast. And so, like just popping back there and hanging out with the dishwasher for 20 minutes when you have time and getting to know them, making them feel heard, I think it helps keep that culture, because a busy restaurant can be a very toxic place if you let it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think that's some really great advice. And, yeah, if you're involved or orbiting around a restaurant, roll back and listen to that last five or six minutes again, because there's some real nuggets there to be had in terms of just getting the culture back when it starts to drift. Because, yes, I mean restaurants they're. They're known as being some really cool places to be as a consumer, but they're very tough places to be as as a an employee oftentimes and can be very toxic environments when there's not good leadership and not you know that caring culture. So, really, really good advice there.
Speaker 3:So let's shift a little bit to kind of tactically talking. You mentioned menu planning. You're in the throes of kind of rolling out a new menu here soon, which is super exciting. But you and I have also had some really cool conversations about the way that you approach menu planning and especially being in a smaller community but having that reach, recognizing that your you know your Tuesday lunch crowd is probably totally different than the folks that are showing up for Friday or Saturday evening. But you've got to have one menu that kind of encompasses. You can't be making, you know, wings on Tuesdays and steaks on Fridays exclusively, Right, but you want to have that appeal to different kind of economic levels and preferences and tastes and everything. So talk to us a little bit about that menu planning process and how you've been able to really try to meet a pretty broad swath of the market in doing that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so, again, not to plug, but, as I told you, like we've been getting, I've been getting more into the consulting side of the industry because, like I love, I love having a restaurant, but to own, you know, multiple I don't ever. I don't see owning 10 restaurants in my future or anything. And I want to help people because I love having a restaurant, but to own multiple, I don't see owning 10 restaurants in my future or anything. And I want to help people because I love the industry, I love it as an art form. So we've been engaging more in the consulting side. So, again, folks, if you're listening to this, feel free to reach out. We can at least have a conversation.
Speaker 2:But the menu is like your number one tool to profitability, to growth, to everything, If you look at it through that lens. And as I told you, like we saw there was a lot of, you know, Mexican cuisine opening up in our I say our market. But it wasn't directly in Mechanicsburg. There was one in Urbana that opened up multiple in in Clark County, some in Madison County, and so our thought process was like let's not combat this. And we don't, we don't necessarily think we're going to be a Mexican restaurant. But to keep our customer frequency up, we may want to increase our offerings in this specific cuisine, Because in the town of 1600 people, if you like, hyper-focus on a concept or or a particular menu item, you just don't have enough traffic to profitability.
Speaker 2:So if you're like a place that just sells, you know, cheeseburgers the likelihood that you're going to sell enough cheeseburgers in a week to cover your overhead and your staff is slim and a super small market. So we kind of took a different approach. Um, like in the midst of like our menu planning, everything I'm reading online is like hyper-focus on your most profitable and best-selling items and I'm like thinking like well, dude, if I hyper-focus on just my market right now, like I'm not going to get the traffic to make this thing happen. So we kind of like balance it out between like a nice run of entrees that would be pretty typical American fare, but what we do is like so if you're somebody that like likes more simple flavors, you can just get the like the base model Right. And we kind of approached it like a Honda Accord or something is like you know, you can just get the base model and again, the price is reflective. But on this last menu, what we realized is like we don't really want a raising of our core pricing because where the marketplace is right now, I think the consumer is a little bit more price conscious than they've been the last few years. So we didn't want to raise any core menu pricing. But if customers wanted to spend more money, we wanted to also give them the opportunity to do that. So we adjusted our menu with more modifications to particular items and in some forms it was just simple modifiers they could select. But in other cases where we thought we had a stellar protein option, we just went ahead and made a whole new menu item for it, made that the standing menu item, and then at the bottom of that particular menu item we were like you know, you can still get the base model for this price kind of thing, and so we saw a lot of success with that.
Speaker 2:Um. But also, like as I told you, I don't like being on trend unless the trend is proven to like work. So we don't generally jump trends very quickly. But you know, finding the kind of hole in your, in your marketplace, I think matters. And it's probably a little easier for us to do that with mix, because the entire concept has kind of been evolved around like unique offerings that aren't on the menu long. So if we go and completely overhaul our menu, uh, that's probably going to be a little bit better received than if burger king was to do it or, you know, applebee's was to do it, and so I think kind of positioning your brand, like as you're planning for this matters as well, and so, like on the next menu, we're really excited because we see a couple spots in our, our market that aren't being offered like certain cuisine types.
Speaker 2:So are we going to take our whole menu in that direction? No, but we're going to, you know, try to highlight some items that both from a price point, are appealing but also to folks that are, you know, traveling to Columbus or Springfield or Dayton to get. That is like, can we keep you here, you know, can we keep you supporting local? And I think that is uh, you know that's a big piece is like finding out what your customers are driving somewhere else for, like out of the marketplace for, and then trying to offer that at, you know, in whatever your brand is more appealing and whether that's price point or quality or service or whatever. So we're, we're, we're really enjoying. We just had our first menu planning meeting last week, so we're really, we're really excited about March.
Speaker 3:Yeah, now, in trying to do that market research and find out what your potential customer is is leaving the market for what they're craving, or or whatever how, how do you do that?
Speaker 1:You know, how have you done that?
Speaker 2:No, we, I go out to eat like so much, or I used to not have kids, I don't eat out as much as I used to but uh, you know, just checking out your competition when new stuff opens, go check them out and see what's happening.
Speaker 2:But a lot of it can be done from your phone as well is like, um, you know, just just hopping on seeing what everyone's offering. Checking out their LTOs is where we're. In our area All the restaurant operators have really good relationships so we generally are talking anyways. But you can hop online and see kind of where everybody's leaning to. And again, it's not always about competition, even though, like, certainly you know that's that's what we're here for is everyone to make money. But you know, just as a community, if you know that, you know customers are leaving your market to go spend money somewhere else, collectively as a group of restaurant operators, you should want to prevent that at all possible. So we have a couple, you know, strong restaurant markets kind of that surround us, like for us it's plain city Marysville, columbus, springfield. You know Urbana has got more goingfield, urbana's got more going on, Bellefountain's got more going on.
Speaker 2:So just trying to keep reevaluating where we are every several months. Don't rest on your laurels. You're only as good today as you are tomorrow. So just thinking about all your past wins doesn't guarantee that you're going to succeed in the next menu offering. So we try to be as diligent every year when we launch the new menu to do that market research. And you're not going to hit everything. You're not going to hit a home run on everything. You're going to have a menu item that you throw on there and it just bombs it happens, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:So I hear you saying that part of it. That market research is, you know, just looking at what other people are offering, also going to those places and like seeing if you see people, you know, you know, it's like not to like catch them in the act, but just to be like, oh okay, like they're going 45 minutes away because it seems like they probably are looking for this particular type of cuisine or price point or ambiance, experience, whatever.
Speaker 2:Well, when we first opened, we saw a lot of that. I'd be in Columbus for an event and I'd look around and I'm like, oh, these people are from Mechanicsburg. And then I'd go and talk to them, like, okay, so how do I keep you in town? And then they start telling me and I'm like, okay, well, you're like the 19th person that's told me that you like XYZ. That's told me that you like XYZ, so maybe we should lean into that, and I think that's a lot of.
Speaker 2:It is like you know, you and I've talked a lot about just, you know, not, not, you can't refuse to change in the restaurant industry. If you refuse to change too long, the entire industry is going to blow past you. It moves so fast and and with the social media world, everyone's taking videos and pictures of what they're eating. Like the trends move so fast and and with the social media world, everyone's taking videos and pictures of what they're eating. Like the trends move so fast, and so kind of figuring out which ones to jump on and which ones to avoid is it's a. It's a new skill that I'm trying to learn too, because just from 2018 to now, like the period of time in which people are actually, you know, focusing on any of that stuff. It's shortened a lot.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so you know one thing that I've heard you talk about you mentioned LTOs, so limited time offerings, right. So it sounds like that's been like a real cornerstone of not only growing your business but also kind of like researching in-house for the next menu iteration, right. So you're bringing in potential menu options. Maybe those are like specials you're getting from your suppliers, maybe it's trying something a little higher priced. See if it you know if it takes or if it bombs, trying just crazy stuff, you know, see how that's received. And it's like kind of your in-house, like laboratory of you know market research, right, where you're bringing in these items, see if they work, if they do make a note, maybe that goes on the next menu. Is that basically the way you've approached it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so initially LTO was just to address customer frequency.
Speaker 2:right, we were like if we keep offering new stuff, they'll keep coming every weekend. And then we realized, like this is a way stronger tool than we were even looking at it initially, is like so now it's turned into exactly what you were saying. Is like if we get, you know, wholesaler calls and like, hey man, we've got this great new product that XYZ restaurants carrying and we're going to have it on all the time. Now can I give you some samples? And so, like the one I was telling you about is like we did a fish platter. That was pretty much all samples because they wanted us to sell it. So it was obviously great, you know, margin on it. But then it allowed us to test a certain product at a certain price point at a certain time of year and then figure out, you know, with whatever metrics we could grab off of our POS system.
Speaker 2:But also that feedback that your servers are getting from the customers matter as well. So whenever we do those LTOs our serving staff they know we want feedback. We want feedback because if it's something as simple as like well, everything was great, but we didn't like the seasoning, then it allows you to adjust that. But if you're just looking at the metrics that your terminal is giving you. You're just going to look at sales data, right, and so we want to get the numbers, but we also want to get, like that, direct feedback from the customer. So actually, one run request our chefs have made is if we can implement something, a series of tools, that will allow us to get better feedback on particular things about the dining experience or the meal from the customer. So don't have a tool in place yet for that, but that's something that we're hoping to get out there. So, um cause again, that's that guest experience matters a lot to us.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, you're talking like something in the way of like comment cards or like something like that, like kind of a little more quantitative. So you have that you're not kind of getting it secondhand from a server or whatever, so you can give that to the chef, both positive and negative. I mean, the tough thing about working in a kitchen and a restaurant, right, is that, like you're not always like getting to see the benefit of your work, right, right, and so that kind of gives that feedback loop too.
Speaker 2:The best compliment you could give a cook or a chef is to post an Instagram or a. Facebook photo. They love seeing that. But yeah, you're correct, they don't get to see the people eat their food and see the response to it.
Speaker 2:And so just to share that with our leadership and we allow kind of everybody in the kitchen, whether they're, you know, a position of leadership or somebody who is, you know, just joined the team and they just run fryers on the weekends is, if you have a good idea and we think it's a good idea, it doesn't matter who it comes from. And so we want to be collaborative and we want to empower everybody on the staff to to throw out those ideas, because I'm not in the building as much as I used to and I don't see it all firsthand anymore. So if you have a solution, or even a proposed solution, like, bring it to the right person and we'll implement it fast. But yeah, the comment cards is like, yeah, we're thinking of, like how can we do a more digital age version of a?
Speaker 1:comment card.
Speaker 2:So that's what we're hoping to explore here soon. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:So you know, final thing kind of with the whole LTO is just the other piece of it is just kind of like business 101. I think that it creates two things that are really important, and that is scarcity and urgency. And so you know, I imagine some of those like different things that you offer, there is some scarcity to it. If you're doing a seafood offering, it's not only a limited time, so there's urgency, but even just on a given Friday night there's maybe a little bit of scarcity to it, which just has this mental kind of appeal to all of us. We're hardwired that when there's scarcity and urgency, like it makes us want it more and it's just, it's just as special to that.
Speaker 2:Gotta grab it. And like when we first really leaned into the LTOs is we were running a uh, lobster ravioli with a we call it a lobster tail chaser. It's like a four ounce lobster tail on it. Um and like we had posted a video of the preparation because we made every ravioli by hand and it just went bonkers on Facebook. And I walked in that night and we had like 50 orders prepared for Friday and Saturday and I was like hey guys, I think we're going to sell out tonight. And they're like there's no way. And I was like, if we sell out, can we do a kitchen party to make more tonight? And sure enough, we sold like 49 orders that night and it was the highest price point special that we had ever done to that date. And uh, it just everything we knew about the restaurant industry to that point. It had it changed our perspective on it.
Speaker 2:And so that was like one of those real points of reflection for our team where we were like, okay, we're going to go about this a little differently than we have in the past. So that was a I love telling that story because, yeah, we ended up staying until I don't know, like midnight, one o'clock in the morning. I never let anybody drink on the clock, but that night everyone was allowed a kitchen beer.
Speaker 3:Nice, yeah, great story. So, um, as we kind of like are getting towards wrapping up, I mean you and I could sit here and talk for four hours and then we could record the whole thing and I'm sure a lot of people would be interested Maybe not everybody, but you know I love learning from your experience. I mean, I think you know restaurants are just so fascinating and I mean we've talked and we have lots of mutual friends that have also are doing this work in other communities and, like we all recognize that restaurants are critical not just to downtowns but just to communities in general. You know they are the place where people gather, they have their life celebrations there in terms of birthdays and anniversaries and special you know promotions and different things that they're celebrating, and I mean they're really important to a community. But they're also really tough businesses to operate.
Speaker 3:I can't remember if I got this from you or not, but I'm sure that it resonates, if not, that you know it's basically kind of all in one a manufacturing business, a retail business and a hospitality business. It's all over. And you know you're trying to simultaneously run these like three basically completely different businesses all under one roof with perishable inventory, with, you know, just tough margins and stuff like that, and so it can be very challenging. And so you know I want to. If there's someone out there who's considering a restaurant or maybe they've taken the leap into a restaurant and they're having some challenges into a restaurant and they're having some challenges, I'd like to talk about a few of kind of the top challenges that you've either seen firsthand in your restaurant or in others and you know what maybe some opportunities are where you've overcome them a little bit, and just to provide some encouragement to those folks that may be in it and trying to fight through.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, as we all know, like anybody who's worked in a restaurant or owned a restaurant like it is, it can be a brutal business because oftentimes you're short staffed, you're at the mercy of multitudes of people's health, doctor's appointments, kids events and so like, and the joke in our industry is that if you're prepared to be busy, you will be slow. If you are understaffed and want to be slow, you will be busy.
Speaker 2:So like it always seems like you're never prepared for whatever situation, regardless of how much planning you've done. So there's just there's levels to it and, as an owner operator, I think a lot of it is just like the time management piece of it is. If you're the like, there's a lot of owner-operators that work in the kitchen, and so if you're working in the kitchen and you're doing prep work and you're doing this and you're doing that, you don't have a lot of time to focus on the admin duties. You're like there was a restaurant operator we were working with and we were asking him about like vendors and he was like I don't, I don't know what I'm paying for anything.
Speaker 2:Man, I was like I've been so short staffed, like. He's like I don't even know if I'm making money on anything. He's like my sales are great, but like all I look at is my bank account at the end of the week to see if it went up or down. And so we heard enough of those stories that we build out some systems, that we work for ourself, that and again. This is where that conversation of like I'd like to help as many people in this industry that we can reasonably help is like. These are some of the tools that we would like to offer people through our consulting services so they can do it so like on the individual level. Yes, there's multitudes of problems.
Speaker 2:Uh, everything from site selection the licenses to construction, to zoning, like there's series of those issues, but like industry wide, like you know, I would say that we just experienced like the golden era of the restaurant age, you know, like 2018 to 2023, like it seemed like didn't matter what happened. Restaurant sales were just going to go through the roof. But, like you know, darden foods publicly traded, they, they, they had a pretty tough 2024 and like their stock just took a big rip like to the upside, because it seems like investors think that some of that choppy market environment's coming to an end. I personally, like on the ground, I think we're still going to see some, some choppiness in the industry.
Speaker 2:And there's a multitude of reasons is like a lot of your suppliers are publicly traded or like they serve shareholders and so, even if food prices start to go down like they're not going to they don't want to drop the wholesale cost to you because they don't want to retract in sales. And you know, it seems like the growth story of the industry like from a unit to unit to unit to unit growth that we've seen since 2018 is starting to slow down. So they're not anticipating all of these extra locations that are going to be open up, so they're not. There's the acquisition of product and you know, to sidebar a little bit, how we kind of worked around. That is, through the grocery stores. You know we have, you know, meat shops in there, so we wholesale from ourselves and we're able to kind of offer a superior product at what I think is a better price than what the rest of the market can.
Speaker 2:So, like finding those you know globally from, you know whether that's policy driven from DC might change and it could be beneficial or, you know, not beneficial. And so I think a lot of that story is still left out there to be told. But you know, we see, on a corporate level, it seems like same store sales for multinational brands are down, which would lead me to assume that it's probably the same for the independent sector. I haven't talked to a lot of folks since we're just here at the early stages of January, here in 25, to see what their year end looked like. So I think those conversations will be interesting and ultimately restaurants are going to be a thing in will be interesting and, uh, you know, ultimately restaurants are going to be a thing in our culture forever.
Speaker 1:As you said.
Speaker 2:You know people are sharing their birthdays, their anniversaries, like it's part of our identity, so it'll never go away. And, like every industry, you know there's going to be periods of massive expansion. Uh, and after that there's generally a lot of competition. So just bring your best foot forward every day. I think is is is what we need to do. And and focusing on all of those cost controls, inventory management, all of the little things that you can control, I think that is going to pay dividends.
Speaker 2:And then marketing, and and I don't want to like, I don't want to understate marketing, I don't want to make it seem like it's the silver bullet, but you can't sell to somebody who does not know you exist. You do not have a digital product, so you cannot deliver it to them via UPS. You have to drive them into your building, and so staying in front of their eyeballs is of major importance. And I think, for those folks that say you are in a successful restaurant environment and you do want to see your sales grow and you may have hit that stagnation, because after year five or six it's generally hard to see significant organic growth unless you're in a major market like Columbus or Dayton, or Dayton is finding alternative income streams, and whether that's a dressing that you make in-house, that you can send people home with bottles of, or finding additional ways to create revenue for your location, I think is going to be a unique strategy that we'll see play out over here the next couple of years.
Speaker 3:Yeah, let's spend just a minute on marketing. This comes up with almost every entrepreneur that I discuss things with. I mean, oftentimes the conversation is along the lines of gosh, I didn't know that marketing would be like so much of my job, as I'm sitting across from you and I know like marketing is so much of your job, but it's just something that has to be done consistently and you know, I think that it's just so easy to forget that and it's so easy to get busy with the other aspects of the business. But, as you said, you know, if people aren't showing up, if you have a brick and mortar business and you don't have people coming through your front door, you're cooked. I mean, that's, that's it Like you have to, and so you know what are, besides just showing up consistently, what are some tips that you would share from your experience on the marketing side that you really feel like resonate with people, that help drive diners into your place?
Speaker 2:I think before we got on air here we were talking a little bit about like with the marketing front is like Facebook seemed to be like everybody's silver bullet for for several years and and it matters, you still want to show up, you want to post every day, but you're you're still at the mercy of the algorithm to a certain extent. So finding alternative methods to get your content in front of people, whether that's digitally or, you know, in person, I think matters. So, like again part of the arts council, they were looking to expand their concert series and you know I was like, hey, what about if we just do like a giant shebang to start the summer off for the arts council? And they were like, well, we don't have funding. So, being that we, you know, do a lot of music.
Speaker 2:It's part of our identity as a restaurant. And I brought it to my dad. I was like, look, I think this would be a great opportunity for us to engage with the community and like, sure, will it benefit us? Maybe, maybe not. Like whatever, I'm still like, whether it's good or bad for us, I think being out there and supporting it is going to be a good part of our identity.
Speaker 2:And so now we're, we're one of the main sponsors for that event, and I don't sponsor everything. I sponsor a lot of stuff Cause I, as you know, as a business owner, like it's a revolving door of of people asking for sponsorships. So so, finding the ones that, like, a, you can have the most impact for them, or but B, that fit with your, your brand identity the most.
Speaker 2:I think that's a great way to get out there, but also like as a as a, as a business operator, um, just being in your community a lot matters and so, uh, I'm not saying, you know, go kiss everybody's butt or anything like that, but like being a solution to other people in any capacity, whether it's somebody picks up the phone last minute and they're like hey bro, I had a catering person that just failed on me.
Speaker 2:Is there any way that you can make this happen? Sometimes the answer is going to be no. If you call me on a Friday night and you need me to cater a 300 person wedding, my chefs would all walk out if I said yes to that. But like being willing to drop what you're doing to be a solution to somebody else, that is like, hands down, the most beneficial thing you can do, because when they think of you as like a positive brand that associates with you, know, positive messaging that helps your community, that's there to support them when things aren't like great, like people want to be a part of that. And and again, just just just building your team to be ambassadors for your business matters too, is like if everyone on your team is, you know, having run-ins with the law, which happens.
Speaker 2:It happens in the restaurant industry. I know some folks are probably listening and laughing like run-ins with the law. But if your entire team is like you got to bail them out of jail on Monday morning, they're probably not going to be the best ambassadors for you. But again, if they're folks that have similar personality traits, similar points of importance for them, they'll carry that with them and they'll operate in you know, good form for you in the community as well. So, again, building that team is like marketing in and of itself, but the the the big thing digitally that we've seen lately is being that Facebook, instagram, all of that controls the algorithm is like you could be doing something Tuesday that's been working for three months and you're just printing engagement and then they change the algorithm for the quarter and your reach just dwindles. Sometimes it's all right I'm paying Facebook to market because I need some sponsored ads, like I want it to stay out there. I want to keep that engagement up. But we've also been building out alternative channels to reach directly to our customers. That kind of circumvents the Facebook algorithm.
Speaker 2:There's tools out there. One that I'm going to shout out is called Minichat, m-a-n-y chat. Very specific messages on your inbox Cause that's another thing is like everybody, as a business owner, thinks that you have somebody that's just waiting on Facebook messenger to respond. So so, having a tool that can respond to like just simple questions like what's your hours, where are you located, what's the special? That kind of stuff we're not perfect at it. It glitches sometimes, you know, as as all technology does, but we're looking for you know strategic tools to utilize. Does, but we're looking for, you know, strategic tools to utilize to help engage with our customer more. Um, there's some phone ordering stuff that's coming out with AI technology that I think will be a game changer for the upside of the customer experience for a lot of uh, a lot of restaurants. So just you know, again, don't overcommit to spending tons of money on technology, but if it's something that can benefit you and it will help reach people on a more consistent basis, uh, I'd say it's probably worth the investment. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:All good advice, um, awesome man. Well, um, we're, we're. At time, maybe over time, I I couldn't stop, uh, listening and asking questions, but thank you so much for your engagement here. I mean, again, I think there's a lot to be learned for for those that are in in the food and beverage industry from what you've shared today. So I'm I'm excited to get this out and and share with people, and then just those that I know, make sure that I share it with them to have them hear this messaging. So, those of you listening if you're listening and somebody comes to mind that needs to hear this and some of this advice that Brad's laid out, please do share this episode with them. So, before we kind of wrap it up, I want to make sure I give you an opportunity to again kind of just reshare or plug your various businesses or, you know, if you want to share your information for people to get in contact with you, you know, please, please, do so. So tell us a little more there how to find you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so businesses wise, we operate in Logan County, clark County, champaign County, all kind of in various capacities. We've got a store in Springfield, in Clark County, that's Market at the Ridge. It has a national sandwich brand with that as well. We're up in Logan County at Indian Lake, with a winner's market location, mechanicsburg, we have winner's market, a couple other, you know, kind of small businesses and that's where Mix is located, where you can, you know, often find me, but also some of the best food in Champaign County. And, as I was telling Luke, we're starting to venture out more into the consulting game as we've built a pretty good team behind us and we feel like we can get out of the restaurant more. So, again, even if you have any questions, you can find me on Instagram, facebook, shoot me an email it's just bradwinner at gmailcom. I'm pretty active on LinkedIn and stuff, so if you're out there and you have any questions, feel free to reach out.
Speaker 3:Yeah, perfect, all right. Well, thank you again, brad. It's been so much fun chatting with you, and so check them out as you're venturing through Mechanicsburg and places around there, and we will look forward to having the rest of you back on another episode of the Main Street Reimagined podcast real soon.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to the Main Street Reimagined podcast. To learn more about Main Street Reimagined Henry Development Group or our work in downtown Marion, ohio, please visit MainStreetReimaginedcom If you want to connect or if you know someone who we need to interview, shoot us an email at info at MainStreetReimaginedcom. Until next time, keep dreaming and don't be afraid to take the leap.