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Restaurant Unstoppable with Eric Cacciatore
1243: Elizabeth Tilton, Founder and CEO of Oyster Sunday and OS BENEFiTS
01:43:43
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- [00:00]
A
What up Unstoppables? We have a great episode for you today, but a quick moment to say thank you so much for your support. If you've been listening, if you've been following, if you've been subscribing, if you've been joining our email list, if you've been over at YouTube, we cannot do what we do without your support. We're just so grateful and we are just getting started. If you want to support this podcast, please come join us over at Restaurant Unstoppable Network. If you're enjoying the the conversations on the show, then be a part of the conversations in Restaurant Unstoppable Network. Literally connect to the people that I'm getting on the show to go deeper. So if you enjoy today's conversation, then be sure to stick around to the very end. You'll find out how you can connect with Elizabeth Tilton yourself. Welcome to restaurant unstoppable. For 10 years and over 1, 000 episodes I've been traveling the country chasing word of mouth leads and having in person only long form discussions with the industry's finest owners and operators. Our mission is to inspire, empower and transform the restaurant industry by bridging the gap between this generation's leaders and the next. Listen to today's guest and so many others and get one step closer to becoming unstoppable. This episode is made possible by US Foods and one of the pillars of the US Foods we help you make it promise is More Tools which provides resources designed to make running your food service operation easier and more efficient. From the all in one food service app Moxie, which goes beyond order placement to help manage every part of your operation 24, 7 to the digital solutions like check business tools and vitals, US Foods delivers smart time saving tools built to simplify operations and support users your success. To learn more visit www.usfoods.com. expect more this episode is brought to you by Restaurant Technologies, the leader in automated cooking oil management. Their total oil management solution is an end to end closed loop automated system that delivers, monitors, filters, collects and recycles your cooking oil, eliminating one of the dirtiest jobs in the kitchen. Restaurant technologies services over 45,000 customers nationwide offer Automate your oil and elevate your kitchen by visiting RTI Inc.com or call 888-779-5314 to get started. This episode is made possible by Restaurant Systems Pro and beginning in January 2026, Restaurant Systems Pro is going to be doing a 30 day mastery program. This is valued at $4,000 and if you head over to go.restantsystemspro.netprofits you can for a limited time get this for only 97. Even better deal. If you sign up for a restaurant unstoppable network by heading to restaurantstoppable.com live, you can get this 30 day mastery program for free when you join the community. And you also get access to this in perpetuity because they're going to be popping it off every month. Go into 2026 with all the knowledge and resources and tools you need to be unstoppable in partnership with Restaurant Unstoppable in Restaurant Systems Pro again, Restaurant Unstoppable.com live. Join the community, get access to this training with excitement. Allow me to introduce to you today's guest founder of Oyster Sunday in OS benefits Elizabeth Tilton. My lady, are you feeling unstoppable today?
- [03:44]
B
I am feeling unstoppable.
- [03:46]
A
You are unstoppable. I had fun doing a little research, learning more about you. I learned that you are not an Oyster restaurant for a fact. Funny story. Irene from Irene Lee from May May called you out like two years ago and I reached out when I was driving through the area and the whole time I thought you were an oyster restaurant. Just because I rely so much on like word of mouth and referrals. I like I don't do the research until you committed because like it's a lot of work, you know. So I found out recently and you know, I'm so stoked that we are here and that I got to learn more about you because what you're doing is really cool. I can't wait to dive more into who you are and what you got going on today. But let's that motivational inspirational ball rolling with a success quote or mantra. What do you got for us?
- [04:30]
B
I have two that stick out to me. The first one is Seek, Trust, deserve It is the first one. It came from a friend of mine from college that he had it above his door and I loved it. And the other one is actually it's a similar quote to what Will Godara goes back to from Unstoppable Hostile. Oh, no. What's it called? I missed the Name welcome conference. Yeah. Oh my God. What's his book name?
- [04:53]
A
Oh, unreasonable, unreasonable.
- [04:54]
B
Oh my gosh. Sorry, Will. He has this quote that's it's an iteration on that that I've had since I was about 21 years old, which is what would you do if you knew you could not fail? And with that comes a consciousness of knowing that failure Will not come. And what do you do with that power? I think it's power and like a consciousness of that.
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A
And fear is the number one thing that totally fear. Fear of failure.
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B
Totally.
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A
And that's what holds us back. I'm not guilty of it sometimes.
- [05:18]
B
Oh my gosh. Totally. I. That quote came to me when I decided not to go to medical school in pursuit of restaurants. So to me it sticks with me. But I like the. If you know you can't in that because there's. There's a self awareness in that for sure. That requires.
- [05:32]
A
Kicks on the frontal lobe.
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B
Yeah, it does. It also requires stewardship of it. If you can't fail, then you know, you can't. Like do you. What do you do with that power?
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A
Yeah.
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B
Is it for good or not?
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A
Yeah. Let's unpackage that first one. Seek trust and earn it.
- [05:46]
B
Yeah. And deserve it.
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A
And deserve it. Thank you.
- [05:48]
B
Yeah. To me it's more of just that comes. That's the thing I think about with partnership, what I think about my husband. When I think about my family, my colleagues. It's more of like if I show up every day and I do what I promise I will do and I show up the best version of myself, then they will trust me. And that's the biggest gift you can give someone is trust. So that's something that I just go back to all the time is like be good to people, treat them with respect and show up.
- [06:13]
A
Stephen R. Covey, the author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. His son wrote a book on this called the Speed of Trust, which I really enjoy. And that how fast things move along when there's trust.
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B
Yeah.
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A
You know, and just the power of trust. It takes years to earn. Can lose it in one act.
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B
Oh, so quickly. Yeah, I always, I. My always thing is that I start every single person I meet has 100 pennies in a jar. Like I start off with that from the day one. And then most people in my life keep them, you know, sometimes they ebb and flow, but like generally. And so I. That's. But I always lead with a sense of optimism. I lead with a sense of generosity, of being like I'm assuming the best intention for our relationship. And in that like earn it.
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A
Keep it 100. Yeah. Great way to get this thing started. So obviously you got a lot going on today and as. As hungry as I am to get into all the projects you have today, we can't not talk about your past. So you already kind of alluded started off thinking you would be A doctor.
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B
Yeah.
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A
And when did this world of restaurants call your name?
- [07:12]
B
Young. Honestly, when I was in high school, even my parents talk about when I. We would go to, like, Sam's, where I'm one of four kids. We go to Sam's on the weekend to pick up a ton of food.
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A
Sam's club?
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B
Yeah, Sam's club. I mean, I'm a Costco.
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A
Hot dogs. Oh, my God.
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B
I'm a Costco girl myself these days. But generally, yes, my lot. My time is spent on Saturdays in between doctors offices and because my parents are both physicians or Sam's Club. But anyway, we would go and I pick up recipe books and like, when I was in the.4. When I was in the fourth grade, you know what I mean? Like, I was like picking up Joy of Cooking books and I would cook scones when I was in the 4th and 5th grade. I loved it. I loved cooking. And then when I got to high school, I used to do these dinner parties just for fun, for friends. And then when I got to college, I was pre med. I wanted to be a pediatric oncologist. I knew that was focused on American studies and bioethics and was like sprinting at that at the University of Virginia. But then I decided to start a catering company my second year. And so in between my first and second year before that even starting that company. Yeah, it was so much fun. I mean, no one should have paid me.
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A
It's probably one of those ignorance is bliss situation.
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B
Oh, my God. No. I had no. Like, I should not have been cooking for anyone that paid me. But I also started. But the. Sorry to take one step back. I had started that summer before at a place called Sucre Staging. They had just opened up. It was like the lottery of the South. And I had an exceptional stage that summer because I didn't want to go into. Go into, like, chemistry labs. I was like, that sounds painfully boring. And so instead I went to go cook.
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A
And there's a lot of chemistry involved in cooking.
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B
There is so much, you know, it is science. Yes. There's so much.
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A
They say that food, our relationship with food is what spurred the scientific revolution. Or just like. Like hunting started with hunting because you had to make a prediction, make a thesis, make a, you know, a scientific. Yes. And then you would study this animal and be like, well, if we do this. And then it was just like, that's like the scientific. Like the scientific process. I'm not really explaining it very well, but that obviously evolved into chemistry with cooking. And like, if. If not for Our relationship with food, we would have never discovered science. And then agriculture, it's. It all started with food.
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B
Yeah.
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A
Really cool.
- [09:21]
B
That's awesome. Yeah. I have a very pointed moment where science and food for me intersected. But I'll tell you. But a little bit to kind of tell you how that, that jump away from medicine happened was I was in my. So I started a catering company second year was doing. It was called Sweetology. What a sad name. Now I look at that, I'm like, I do branding. I mean, it was pretty good at the time. I was science and dessert. It made sense. I was 19. But here we are. Anyway, so I, going into my fourth year, I knew that I had to go take the mcat. I'm dyslexic, severely dyslexic. And I knew I had to go apply for like extra time and get another neuropsych exam and do all these things where I was like, do I really. Do I really want this?
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A
Yeah. That's rare in women too, isn't it? Dyslexia.
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B
Oh, I don't know.
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A
Maybe I'm just thinking about colorblindness.
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B
Yeah.
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A
Maybe carry it.
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B
Yeah, I'm not sure, but yeah, I. And so I was just like, I do. I really. Is this what I want? And so I decided, I was like, all right, why don't I go cook for a year and decide whether or not this is it? Yeah, I'll come back.
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A
I find that there's a lot of people drawn to the food and beverage industry with dyslexia. Have you noticed that too?
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B
Yes.
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A
I don't know if it's because I also have it. So I like you. You're aware of it and you seek it and you're like, oh, me too.
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B
Yeah.
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A
I wonder if it's. It's like we people who have dyslexia tend to be more right minded individuals, more creative in the moment, present socially, emotionally intelligence, empathetic, and those traits do really well in the hospitality industry. We're also really good big picture thinkers. Yes, we see the big picture. We're not great in the details, but I don't want to speak for you. Would you say that's true or not?
- [10:56]
B
Absolutely.
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A
Yeah.
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B
And I think it's the. So my parents, my mom's a neurologist, pediatric neurologist. And I got diagnosed and I was in the. How old was. I was in the fifth grade, going to sixth grade. And when at that time I was at rock bottom, I didn't think I deserved to be in School. I couldn't read. I couldn't. Like, I just. I couldn't read out loud. I would have, like, oh, my God. Panic attacks about it.
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A
Anxiety.
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B
I know.
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A
It's real into, like, middle school.
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B
Yeah.
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A
It's. I used, like, that whole, like, everybody in the class would have to take their turn reading. I would do them. I would do the math. Like, or, like, I'd figure out, like, how many paragraphs ahead are we? And I wouldn't even be paying attention to what was happening in class because I was practicing the whole time.
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B
Oh, my gosh. Every time. But then also, I could read and make up the words and figure out the context without having to know how to read it.
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A
Right.
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B
It was a wild. A wild time. But anyway, I was like. But I remember getting. The first time I got. I got diagnosed. My parents didn't. My mom. Not that they didn't tell me. They just didn't want to make an excuse out of it. So they're like, hey, we're just gonna adopt some things into your life. Not a big deal. We're just gonna keep moving forward. Right. And I remember getting my first book on CD for audiobook, and it was the Giver.
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A
Oh, my God, that's a great book.
- [12:00]
B
Oh, it's such a good book. It has such a soft spot in my heart. That and Forrest Gump, which you can get to another time. But I remember reading that book for the first time and hearing a. For a full book, and every word, it was meant to be. And I was dumbfounded at, like, how much I loved learning. It was just one of those moments. I was like, my whole world got reorganized.
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A
That's what podcasts were for me in 2012.
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B
Yes.
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A
When I discovered podcasts, like, literally 18 hours a day. Because I would listen at times, too, and I was, like, working for nine hours, and I would just consume. And, like, I, Like. I found out that day that I was an audible learner. And that's also how I discovered audiobooks.
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B
Yeah.
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A
And it just. From there, it was like rocket fuel. Like, I couldn't get enough.
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B
It's amazing. I listen to podcasts all the time. Yeah. Anyway, it's a. That, to me, I do think has become a superpower over the long run. But I remember, like, at that time trying to decide do I go to med school or not? And I was like, I don't think I want that. And I went and cooked.
- [12:53]
A
Takes courage.
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B
Thank you. Yeah. And I went and cooked. And then I was like, I like this. Let me just try one More year. Let me just try one more year. And. And I never went.
- [13:01]
A
Is it what you wanted or is it what your parents wanted? Wanted or your family wanted?
- [13:04]
B
Oh, no, I love medicine. I still, like, I hear them talk about, like, patients, not, not HIPAA compliance, all that jazz, but I hear them talk about circumstances or what they're battling with, and it is fascinating. Oh, it's fascinating. My dad's a cardiologist. My mom's a pediatric neurologist. And I could listen to them all day. Right. Talk about all kinds of like cerebral palsy and, you know, spinal bifida and like, I, I would. And I remember, like walking with my mom. Most of my childhood was spent in the, like on the weekends. Besides Sam's club, Go Full Circle was spent in the, in the halls of Children's Hospital here in New Orleans where, like, I was meeting her patients as friends and so not loved it.
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A
Not to date you, but when did you graduate college?
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B
I'm just kidding. 20. 2010.
- [13:46]
A
2010. So you went straight from college. And this is. I'm just going to go a quick LinkedIn run through here. So we get like the, the fast forward version. 2010-2012. You're a head chocolatier at Sucre or I'm sorry, then you were a pastry cook from 2012 or just less than a year. You're a pastry cook. I won't say the names of the restaurants. Then you got into PR with Momofuku. I will say the name of that one because that's obviously stands out. Did that for three years. So talk about, you know, going from kitchen to pr.
- [14:17]
B
Yeah.
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A
This is why I really want to take time to dive into your background. And then you were head of brand for. I don't know what WMP is, but we can get into that. That was from 2015 to 2019. And then you're a member of the board of advisors for Women in hospitality for about five years and interim marketing officer for Noma from 2023-24. Board member of Shaxbury Cider. And then you have Oyster Sunday, which you started in 2019 and you're doing that to present day. And you also are rolling out Oyster Sunday benefits, which is hr. So we have a lot to unpackage. But where do you think it makes sense to go to out of that journey that I just did a 30,000foot flyby.
- [15:05]
B
I would say broad strokes. You know, I, I got really fortunate in my career where I. And it kind of comes back to like, what would you do if you knew you could not fail. I made a jump leaving medicine to go to, you know, pre med to go to cook. And then when I moved to New York, I knew I did not want to be back a house anymore and I wanted to go front of house. And so I started on the floor at Sambar and then there was an opportunity to join the branding and marketing team. So the PR and marketing team up at the corporate. And I applied and I just asked the Sue Chan at the time who was my boss, like, who was your ideal candidate? And she was like, apply. And I got that role. And I didn't know, I mean, honestly, it was a, it was one of the biggest growth spurts I've ever had as professionally. And it was hard. I mean, I didn't know what I was doing. I was learning, but I didn't also never touch a POS system before walking on the floor of Sambar. So I, but that, that, that doesn't scare me.
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A
Yeah. So Sambar, is that one of the Momofuku concepts?
- [16:00]
B
It was, yeah.
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A
How many concepts did he have at one time?
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B
Golly. There was three in Toronto, Sydney, several in New York and then DC was being seated open and then Vegas and la.
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A
So you had no PR background and just threw your hat in the ring and.
- [16:16]
B
Yeah, I was more on the marketing and branding side. Yes. Yeah, I joined the team. We're small and lean. She, sue was running an amazing team, Brilliant people around me and we were just about five of us running the entire department.
- [16:29]
A
Did you ever find out why you like, what you had, like what they were.
- [16:32]
B
I was scared to ask. I feel like they'd like, they figure me out, you know. No, I had done some event planning stuff in the past and I, I, I give credit to sue for giving me a chance because at the end of the day, if I was truly not qualified, if I, but I think I knew how to, I was empathetic to restaurant, restaurants and chefs. Like, I think at its core, when coming at it, from that I could learn marketing. Right. I can learn. And it's all evolving so fast, right?
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A
And it's always changing. Whatever worked two years ago doesn't work today.
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B
I mean, we don't even talk about now. It's changing so much. But at the time, like, yeah, Instagram was just starting and caviar and delivery was just starting. You know, it's just, it was a different time and, and I think I had the, the insatiable curiosity to like try to get in the room and to Try to learn. And I think I was very grateful for my time there. By the end of it, I was very tired, you know, to be totally honest.
- [17:21]
A
But it was tiring about.
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B
I was, I was always doing twice the amount of work to get to the outcome because I was learning for the first time. I'll chalk that up to my own, my own self. We had a lot of responsibility.
- [17:33]
A
It wasn't an easy organization to work for. Like they, they have high expectations.
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B
High expectations were in a huge moment of growth. Not only were the restaurants. There was the publication. Yeah. And the, the culinary lab. There was so many things happening at that time. But I feel grateful to have seen that. And it actually, that was the reason that sparked Oyster Sunday, my first company. I was sitting in this corporate office having seen for the first time getting out of the weeds and seeing the 30,000 foot view and a, literally an office in Union Square on like the, you know, 10th level or whatever floor we're on. And I was able to be like, wow, there's all these departments, finance, operations, hr, marketing, branding, that are all servicing Dave's restaurants. But why couldn't we take these same focuses and spin it out and service the 420,000 independent restaurants in America?
- [18:21]
A
Right.
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B
So that all need these foundations.
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A
I should have started with this like in one sentence, two sentences. What is Oyster Sun?
- [18:27]
B
Oyster Sunday is a consultancy at its core. We think of ourselves more of like strategic partners, but we are a corporate office office for independent restaurants and hospitality brands. So we come in and be coming and be part of your, your company.
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A
And what you have, is it five or six different like categories? What are those?
- [18:45]
B
Finance, marketing, branding operations, hr. And then now a lot of like data and technology.
- [18:51]
A
Yeah. Would you call yourself a fractional executive? And what kind of fractional executive? Because you're not, I mean you're like kind of cmo. And would you say you're a cfo?
- [19:01]
B
I think we do all the departments so we can kind of come in. So my, my firm belief is that every single independent business in hospitality has an exceptional team. Like, it's creative, but there could be gaps. Right. So we come in to sit there and be like, okay, where's your strengths and weaknesses? How can we support your weaknesses to either stay on? We've had some clients who've stayed on for six years since we launched. Or help you build it. Let's build it. Let's build the framework, let's hire and.
- [19:24]
A
Let'S roll off and then, yeah, you go fly on your own.
- [19:27]
B
Exactly. So we do retainer and project based work. But we've done everything from building out wine labels. We just launched Regina King, the actress, the actor's wine label. We've, as mentioned, helped NOMA projects in Copenhagen to really think about their growth as a company. We've helped open small boutique hotels, we've helped nonprofits. Everything goes as long as it's independent, has a point of view and is in hospitality.
- [19:52]
A
Yeah. And this is what got me really excited. And I believe that the fractional executives are going to be what helps keep independence going. It is a part of the puzzle that we're trying to figure out. I think it's heavily leaning on technology to learn how to do more with less, but then to outsource that management of the technology to a fractional executive, whether that be a CMO or a cfo. You guys seem to kind of. You don't do bookkeeping in taxes, do you?
- [20:25]
B
We do not. That's like pretty much pr. Bookkeeping and taxes are the things we don't touch and making the food.
- [20:30]
A
I was a little stressed out because my current sponsor, Sir Boni, out of Texas, I don't think there's a little. Actually, you complement each other really well. So let's meet him. Yeah, I'm happy to make that introduction. And I do think that as we go into the future, this is the, this idea of reaching out to specialists outside sourcing. It's less expensive to, to work with a company like Sir Bon. And I don't know what your rates are. I'm assuming it's probably less expensive than it is to go hire a director of operations. A lot less expensive. I don't, I don't want to make assumptions about your rates, but if you're working with independents, I'm assuming it can't beat their budgets. Yeah, exactly.
- [21:06]
B
Totally.
- [21:07]
A
And I, in having those specialists and creating, I think it's also going to create opportunity for more people to come into this industry to be specialists and to be that bridge to help you get from, you know, one location to 10 locations if you ever want to bring it in house. But even then, I don't know if it makes sense.
- [21:24]
B
Yeah, because we do a lot, I mean, a whole lot of financial planning and forecasting for our operators. Because we come in and say, okay, you're one location, you want to get to six. Like, are we building out a commissary? Do we have cold storage? Do we. Are you. What are where. What locations are you looking at? What's your labor pooling and modeling like? We're doing all that for operators. So we're starting from like, I have an idea all the way to like, I'm fully functioning and running.
- [21:48]
A
I love that we're going to get more into that same thing now because if you're listening to this, I want to make sure you stay with us because you have a new, your newest project os. Do you just go by OS or is it Oyster Sunday Benefits?
- [21:59]
B
It's OS benefits now. It used to be Oyster Sunday Benefits program of which has now been consolidated.
- [22:04]
A
Yes, it rolls a little easier. OS benefits. What is OS benefits in one sentence or two?
- [22:10]
B
It is. It is nationwide health insurance and wellness benefits made for and by the hospitality industry.
- [22:17]
A
Okay. And why did you start this?
- [22:20]
B
Because speaking of the financial modeling, we kept seeing all this need. People would come to us saying, I want to offer health insurance to our teams. And we're like, great, let's go get a quote. And we would get a quote. And we come back and the premiums are too high, deductibles are too high, and no one can make a big enough dental to even make it obtainable to have participation.
- [22:38]
A
Which is crazy that this country, that we can't figure this out. And I don't know if many people know this, but your health, like, I think debt from medical bills is the number one reason why people go bankrupt, which is scary. And if you're in the restaurant industry, you don't have a, like, something happens to you. I mean, there's incredible foundations out there. I'm like, is it blue smoke? That, that Southern smoke? Southern smoke, yeah. Yeah. Like the work they're doing. Chris Shepard was actually called out on my most recent episode and I had to leave Houston and I thought, I'm pretty. I feel good that Leonard would have hooked it up. But Chris, if you're listening to this man, I'm coming back. I'm coming back. But it's a real issue in the industry. Health, health benefits and support.
- [23:22]
B
Yeah. I mean, 41 of like working age adults carry medical debt.
- [23:26]
A
Wow.
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B
And it can start with 200 bucks.
- [23:28]
A
I have all kinds of other debt.
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B
Yeah.
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A
Fortunately, I have no medical debt. Knock on wood. Like, I should not have said that out loud.
- [23:34]
B
No, it's a. He literally knocked on. No, but it's, it's a, it's a huge issue. And I think that we, I mean, I'm, I'm someone who's like, as I mentioned, like, insatiable. Insatiable curious. And I'm like, have an immense amount of optimism that we can figure things out. And when I see something that's like, well, it's always been done that way or this is how it just is, I'm like, oh, let's dig. Like, let's figure it out. There's gotta be a new way.
- [23:56]
A
Yeah.
- [23:56]
B
And so we spend about three and a half years tinkering, thinking and thinking about how could we solve this and it. What has led to the. The iteration of OS benefits that's going out to market.
- [24:06]
A
And that's your teaser listeners. Stick around because we're going to go in chronological order here. But I want to make sure if you're listening to this, you know what's coming down the barrel. And let's go back where we left off. But before take a big swig of that wine. I feel like you've been doing so much talking. I'm like this poor lady.
- [24:20]
B
Cheers. Chin chin.
- [24:24]
A
Ah, it is. It is delicious. By the way, what was this?
- [24:28]
B
Oh, this is the Montemilio out of Italy.
- [24:32]
A
Oh my goodness, I love that.
- [24:33]
B
Good.
- [24:34]
A
Thank you. Thank you so much for welcome or you know. Yeah. Welcoming me with.
- [24:37]
B
I mean, New Orleans style, amazing glass of wine.
- [24:40]
A
And at any point, if you need to take a sip, you just tell me. So. Okay, where do we leave off? You were with Momofuku Prince.
- [24:51]
B
Yeah.
- [24:51]
A
That's where you kind of got the aha moment.
- [24:52]
B
That was aha moment.
- [24:53]
A
We need to consolidate this.
- [24:54]
B
Yeah. For OSA Sunday and. And which came to life in 2019. But I would say that was the biggest like the biggest like, oh shit, this needs to exist moment. I've had two of those so far. And then the after leaving Momofuku, I got approached by a company called wmp. We did industrial design, so we did like barware, cookware, things of that nature for companies like Williams, Sonoma west, elm, Starbucks, Lucasfilms.
- [25:19]
A
Oh, cool.
- [25:19]
B
And I was ahead of brand there. So I was a one of the core team that joined and then by the time I left were around 60 employees. So it was an enormous. I got to see there was how to build a small business, how to roll out 400 1K plans, health insurance and in really. And you know, the two co founders, Josh Williams and Eric Prom, which is the wnp. They gave me a lot of trust. I mean similar to Momofuku. I mean I walked into a role being like branding. Huh. All right. I had experience but I like it was a whole. It's cpg. It's like hard goods. I'm selling in shelf stable hard goods into Starbucks or shipping me out to Seattle to take a meeting.
- [25:56]
A
What kind of reputation did you have to be able to attract on to yourself these opportunities? Like, did you ever get feedback like, what are you naturally good at? What do you think it is?
- [26:04]
B
Oh my goodness, Eric. I, I, I don't, I think I would have to have someone else answer that. I don't know if I can answer myself.
- [26:12]
A
Do you ever get like little clues like, do people don't give you reinforcement, they don't give you compliments, they don't say you're really good at this?
- [26:18]
B
Oh man.
- [26:18]
A
I think that's how we become self aware is the, the compliments, the, the reinforcement that people give us all the time.
- [26:23]
B
But then I hear compliments and I'm like, oh, I like shudder. I would say. I, I think some of my superpowers are that I, I'm definitely, I want to get it done, I want to do it right. I'm a partially perfectionist. And, and I'm also on the other end. I, I think it maybe is a dyslexia. Whatever it is, if the world's moving here, I'm a little bit a jar.
- [26:46]
A
Yeah.
- [26:46]
B
And I'm thinking about it a little bit differently.
- [26:48]
A
It gets me in trouble sometimes.
- [26:49]
B
Yeah, totally.
- [26:50]
A
Because when I see the pattern disrupt.
- [26:52]
B
Yes.
- [26:52]
A
I'm like, what the what, hold on. What are we doing? Yeah. Social media is really important, but can we talk about the bigger issue that it's bad? Like that it's, there's a lot of negative that comes, but you got to do it. We have to do it. It's just like at what cost do you, you know, like, yeah. Do we really want to give Meta and Google literally all of our data? Like, do we want that? Like, and I sound like a crazy person. But like, and it's, but I hear you. But it's like we, I think it's a superpower in people that we are led to believe we have a disability. But I think we also have some really good high level capabilities that most people seem to not care about because they're too close to it. They can't see the big picture.
- [27:37]
B
Yeah. And I always think of it as like every, even in all my roles, I think of as like this little pri, you know, when you go to the eye doctor and they have those little prisms that fall into your eyes to find clarity. I think every time I do a new job, a new job, I get deep in, you can tell from my resume I'm in for years. Like, I'm not going anywhere and but I always think of it as like what are those tools you're gaining? What are the tools in your tool belt? What are the vantage points you're now looking through? And to me I'm always take that with me.
- [28:01]
A
Yeah, you have some. Sorry.
- [28:03]
B
No, no, I was saying that. And that to me is what where my clarity comes it gets clearer and clearer. The more I do, the more I learn, the more I learn from others. I love learning from others.
- [28:11]
A
Yeah, I can relate. So I mean you have definitely have some autodidact qualities where you just self taught where you get in there and you learn on your own which is a really hard, an uncommon trait. You know, I think that's really cool. So any big listens from the lessons from the world of marketing and branding that you can share with us if you could summarize that part of your life that how that serves you today?
- [28:38]
B
For me at the end of the day I think through marketing and branding everyone people are looking at brands to find themselves. Right. I'm a big believer that what like is this is. Well I guess let me take a step back. Like during my studies at the university a lot of the time was like we're looking at nation states and you know yourself by what you are not like on the other side of the aisle. I am not. We are American, we're not from Mexico, we're not from France. Right. And I think on the in a branding sense I take that with me where I'm like what people want to do is they want to see themselves reflected in a mirror. They want to see a life that they can see or our values that they learn or the values. And I think particularly as Gen Z comes up like that is innate. Like people. People will value why over what? Yes, absolutely. The why. The why, the why. And I've learned that through my own team that are Gen Z's, you know.
- [29:27]
A
And I hope there are saving grace.
- [29:29]
B
I do too. I do too. And we did a really fun project with OS benefits with some two lane students only like two weeks ago that was eye opening. But I think if I were to. Yeah if I were to take it back. What I've learned is that in marketing and branding it's always changing and evolving but the ability to be empathetic to your end user, the empath, the empathy it takes for that could be for product design, industrial design, food and beverage, you have to meet them with I see you, I see you and I, I care about you and like and that's Hospitality in its own way too. And so I said meet them.
- [30:01]
A
Are you saying meet the client or meet the consumer?
- [30:04]
B
Client, consumer, anything. Right.
- [30:05]
A
That is like, I think Will Cadera says it really well where hospitality is seeing and being seen.
- [30:10]
B
Yes.
- [30:11]
A
And I think it literally cuts into our DNA as who we are as a species.
- [30:17]
B
Yes.
- [30:17]
A
We are tribal. If we are not valued by our tribe, if we're not seen by our tribe, where we, we need a place. Because if we don't have a place in a tribe, we don't have a chance.
- [30:28]
B
Exactly.
- [30:28]
A
Because we need the tribe. So finding a way to add value and be seen for your value and in that moment known that you're seen and appreciated and that is reinforced. I don't think we, I think that the hospitality is literally. It's not an act, it's not a thing. It's is who we are as a species. And I think we don't look at it like that.
- [30:49]
B
Yeah. And I think even going back to like the pre med and wanting to be a doctor, it's like I think the ability and willingness to serve others is innate in both of those practices. And so I think for me it's like my whole goal, my whole, my whole life's purpose is serve others. Like that is why I'm on this world and, and I know that about myself and it's to learn a ton and to care for a lot of people. And so that just is what drives me every day. And I think that it's when it comes to marketing and branding, it's like, what, what is the values that you carry that you're trying to serve people? Are you talking to the right people?
- [31:19]
A
Right. So you're really seeing who people are bringing that to the surface to help them distill their why their uniqueness and to make that kind of forefront. Is that what I'm hearing?
- [31:30]
B
Yeah, I would say so. I think it. But I think I'm good at like the 30,000, like what is the. Where is the general trends going? And I work with people that are exceptional at saying, I see this one person. Yeah, I know, I know. Jim wants this. And here we are. And like that's a whole different type of branding and loyalty and marketing that I think is beautiful.
- [31:47]
A
And I want to get into the big picture stuff.
- [31:48]
B
Yeah.
- [31:48]
A
Like chomping at the bit.
- [31:49]
B
Oh, good.
- [31:51]
A
This episode is made possible by US Foods. And one of the pillars of the US Foods, we help you make it promise is more tools which provides resources designed to make running your food service operation easier and more efficient from the all in one food service app Moxie, which goes beyond order placement to help you manage every part of your operation 24. 7 to the digital solutions like check business tools and vitals, US Foods delivers smart time saving tools built to simplify your operation and support your success. With Moxie alone, you can browse products with AI powered search, manage lists, track deliveries with the AI powered Where's My Truck? By US Foods reorder with just a few clicks and you can do that from your phone, tablet or desktop. Here's a bonus, you can even browse Moxie without signing in. And we can't forget Check Business Tools, which is essentially a suite of vetted third party solutions that help operators solve critical business challenges such as drive traffic to their location, simplify staffing process and modernize operations for greater efficiency. To learn more, visit www.usfoods.com ExpectMore this episode is brought to you by Restaurant Technologies, the leader in automated cooking oil management. Unstoppable restaurant owners know which services to keep in house and which services to outsource and oil management is one of those things you should outsource. Their Total Oil Management Solution is an end to end closed loop automated system that delivers, monitors, filters, collects and recycles your cooking oil, eliminate one of the dirtiest jobs in the kitchen, create a more efficient food service operation and ensure consistent food quality with a safer, smarter and sustainable cooking oil solution. Restaurant technology services over 45,000 customers nationwide, including countless past guests on the show. Automate your oil and elevate your kitchen by visiting RTI Inc. Or call 888-779-5314 to get started. All right, so let's fast forward to where you are today. You saw this opportunity to bring everything under one house and where did you like what from day one? Was it finance, operations, hr, marketing and branding or did that evolve over time?
- [34:14]
B
It was. Yeah, it was those five categories and they kind of all turned on at different times based off the team structure.
- [34:19]
A
But how big was your team when you opened? Because you weren't all these things, were you?
- [34:23]
B
I was. It was one.
- [34:24]
A
You were all these things. How did you teach yourself all these things?
- [34:27]
B
I. I didn't. No, no, no. I got independent contractors people and to help me out at the time. But I knew that if I was going, going out to market and what I wanted us to be was all these categories and so I put out into the world this is what we do.
- [34:40]
A
How'd you find all these independent contractors and how did you know that they were the best at what they did, that you could trust them to do a good job.
- [34:46]
B
I feel very lucky to have a great network of people that I've met. And also I had a lot of friends of mine at the time who are going out on their own. And then shortly thereafter, I mean, we launched, Golly in October of 2019 and I had made my first hire, Jessica Abel. She came from Union Square Hospitality Group on their business development team. I met her and I immediately was like, you're going to be my coo, like head of operations. And so she came on January of 2020 and then pandemic happened and it was just the two of us.
- [35:13]
A
Did you have to raise money? No, it's. How do you get people to join something you want to do when you're not making any money to pay them to do it yet? Or did you get customers right out of the gates?
- [35:24]
B
I had some customers.
- [35:24]
A
Okay.
- [35:25]
B
Yeah. I was fortunate for that. Just contracts here and there. Enough to cover our salaries or her salary. Honestly mine. Yeah. And. But I knew and I had, I had kind of put some my own money into it to make it come off. It was like self funded. And I could see where the good thing about agencies, it's like it's demand in product out. Demand and product out. And you're constantly dealing with labor as part of that equation. Right. It's your biggest cog.
- [35:50]
A
Well, there's not a lot of cost goods.
- [35:51]
B
Exactly.
- [35:52]
A
When you're digital today, you're just offering services. You don't really need overhead.
- [35:56]
B
Totally. We're fully remote. I had a full tech stack. Things were cloud based. The only reason, even writing down the idea in 2012 I was we were still tethered to Micros and at Momofuku like TOAST wasn't integrated.
- [36:08]
A
And yeah. The world by 2019 had changed so much to make it more accessible, more doable.
- [36:13]
B
And that's when I was like, it's ready, we're ready. Because it just became TOAST became industry standard. Resi was up and you know, like everything was cloud based and all these systems are talking to each other and we'll get into technology and data in a minute. But that to me was like, oh, we've arrived. Yeah.
- [36:28]
A
So the fact that it is now cloud based, you can be anywhere and source the information. Source. The platforms manage multiple different locations from place.
- [36:37]
B
Exactly. And multiple different companies.
- [36:39]
A
Yeah.
- [36:40]
B
And so. And, and I think that Covid with everything going digital and everyone being remote. We started off remote from day one. Both companies and I knew that was a qual. A value that I wanted was the ability to be mobile and freedom. And so I. That's from. So that's why we. So we had to build trust of saying like. And I used to have to fly to go see everyone face to face. And now that's not the case.
- [37:01]
A
I know. I chill. I still choose.
- [37:03]
B
I know it's a good. But it's a good thing. I mean, we get to meet in person. I think there's a. There's an amazing. And there's people we chose to go fly out to. To meet even though it was not a requirement. And we try to do that for as many people as we can. Um. But yeah, so we. We. I knew from day one that was gonna be the core functions. I knew that I was not good at all of them. And I really do consider myself that when I think about what my biggest asset is. And maybe this goes back to your question earlier that I skirted around because I don't have an answer. Cause I'm talking about myself. Is that I. I consider myself to be the conductor. Like, I'm not the first church cellist or violist. But when they're all together and they're in harmony and it's melodic, like, I can hear it and. And I can see the Tetris board of all the people that need to be in this and what. What the customer needs and what we have and where we need to. Where our gaps may be at the time and how do we fill them and meet them. I mean, to the point where, like, we got a bid out for a big lounge opportunity in airports. I was scaling out. I think my NDA is done. I won't say who. And we got. This is 2020. Yeah. And we got down to one of the two last agencies for the bit for the RFP.
- [38:07]
A
Okay.
- [38:08]
B
Went out to interview. Like not yet, but digitally interviewed. And they're like, so how big's your team? And there I was like, to be totally honest, it's two of us and a lot these. But this is our t. This is our team. But two full time. And they're like, we're gonna have to go with this company because you're a little bit safer. But we were the last two because we could see what they needed. Right. And we've always been that way.
- [38:26]
A
This is for the airport restaurant concept.
- [38:28]
B
Well, this was for. We had been asked to bid out for a lounge and put an rpn and. But I'm using that as an example to say, like, we could see what all the pieces they needed. We could assemble that team to goddess to the last round.
- [38:40]
A
Right. You know, you get the money, then you bring the team in, but you need the money before you can.
- [38:45]
B
Yeah. We already had some clients before that. But this is, this has been transformative of our business. If we had gotten it, I'm glad we didn't because we stuck true to what our core was, which was independent hospitality businesses. And. But again, I just bring that up because like those we knew with all those pieces they needed and we had people for all those seats.
- [39:02]
A
Yeah.
- [39:02]
B
Even going into something so young.
- [39:04]
A
So Oyster Sunday is not a technology company, It's a service company.
- [39:06]
B
Service company.
- [39:07]
A
And again, those services, finance operations, hr, marketing and branding. We could talk about the evolution of finance and what you've learned and what you were versus what you are today. But for the sake of actually adding value to the listener, like relative to finance, what does finance look like through the lens of Oyster Sunday? Like, when you're working with your clients, are you talking about financial models? Is it raising money? Like what. What is under the umbrella of finance?
- [39:34]
B
I would say most of us start with financial review analytics, like processing performance. We do a lot of that trying to sit there and say, where can efficiency be found?
- [39:45]
A
So you're looking at P Ls and you're looking for opportunity.
- [39:49]
B
Whereas that side or we're building from scratch, someone has an idea they need to go out for funding. Those are the two sides of finance. I would say the one thing that shifted most is that the alternative revenue streams that people are looking for and being very cognizant of what, what part of their P and L, they're prioritizing that it can be balanced. We do a lot with when it comes labor, like we. The amount of people that are prioritizing benefits and all that we'll get to has increased. The cost of labor has increased.
- [40:16]
A
Right.
- [40:17]
B
Cost of food has increased.
- [40:18]
A
I'm really. Yeah. You know, it's one of these things where I like this. I've been saying it's getting harder and harder. Harder for good people to do good work.
- [40:24]
B
Yeah.
- [40:24]
A
And by good work, I mean honest work, where you take care of people and you support local business and you pay people well. It's all cutting into profit.
- [40:32]
B
Yeah.
- [40:32]
A
You know, if you want to pay people well, if you want to source good quality products from people in your community, if you want to offer them health insurance, like where, like it, you're gonna have to charge a lot more money and Then the consumer just goes, what the heck is this?
- [40:49]
B
Right, right. You know, I think that's being met with a lot of automation and efficiency. Right. Particularly just the admin side of your business. I know QuickBooks has an amazing tool that you can automate a lot of your accounting needs. And. And I think that it's just this repetitive behavior that you can automate is it relieves a lot of people of time, particularly management. So I think my. My general thesis is that people will have smaller teams and leaner labor models, but some people more.
- [41:14]
A
Yeah.
- [41:15]
B
Because they'll find efficiency elsewhere. But it's not just people are all having issues finding people. So I don't think it's a. I think there will be a balance to be strong.
- [41:22]
A
And I think that balance is, yes, the technology, but also firms like Oyster Sunday, like Serboni.
- [41:30]
B
Yes, yes.
- [41:30]
A
That are out there who are specialists and who can man use like be masters in the technology. And we'll get to the technology. Masters in the technology. So you can focus on what you love. The restaurant, the people, the relationships. And because you're masters in the technology, you can do more.
- [41:46]
B
Yes.
- [41:47]
A
And I think that's the rub. That's the secret sauce right there is fractional executives combined with rapidly evolving technology. That's what's really exciting. I hope this is a saving grace for it. For. I don't see how the corporations can compete with that.
- [42:03]
B
That.
- [42:03]
A
Because at some point in order to compete with that, you have to sacrifice the human element.
- [42:08]
B
Yeah.
- [42:08]
A
And I think there's a certain point where that will become so transactional. My hope is that the consumer will just be like, nah, I'd rather go have a relationship.
- [42:16]
B
Yeah. I think they. I think they do. And I think that we're also talking to. As the next generation steps up and has more purchasing power. You know, they spent a lot of their informative years not with others and did lights just kill?
- [42:29]
A
There are ghosts in here.
- [42:31]
B
There we go.
- [42:32]
A
That's interesting.
- [42:33]
B
Yeah. You know, there's been a lot of their informative years alone and a. Digitally like. Because social media and all that jazz as they've grown up. And then obviously I don't want to bring up Covid too much. We have all been there.
- [42:44]
A
Yeah. I try to skip over.
- [42:45]
B
I know, me too. But I just. I bring it up because the. There did have five years of like transformative where people. And so they're craving interaction.
- [42:52]
A
Yeah.
- [42:53]
B
And I think that's why I do. I'm very bullish on restaurants and the hospitality industry is because that that can't be automated. Is that the intersection of humans? And I think that it will always be around for that reason.
- [43:04]
A
I'm super stoked that AI is gonna, I hate to say this, a lot of white collar jobs are gonna go away and when that happens, we're gonna be here. It's been hard for the past 15, 20 years finding people to come to our industry, but we're not going anywhere.
- [43:18]
B
Yeah.
- [43:18]
A
And I think that people, I know a lot of people who work remote and they're not happy. They don't, they're missing a big part of their life, the camaraderie, the relationships in the office. And like those people, those jobs are going to start going away real fast. And I think that, I think that public health, mental health will be much better when people get back to working in physical space with each other and being seen and valued for what they're good at.
- [43:42]
B
Yeah. And also even just in community with each other.
- [43:44]
A
Right.
- [43:44]
B
It's important.
- [43:45]
A
Right?
- [43:45]
B
Yeah. But I would say, you know, like when it comes back to our, you know, what we've seen as it's evolved, like, you know, we've, we start with like the finance and we'll get into operations, which is like AI and everything from automation, tech, stack, data management, all that.
- [43:59]
A
So finance. Raising money too. And that's what you guys do with raising money. There's a lot of resources out there right now I'm curious about. Do you look to resources out there like in kind or do you, what, what resources do you leverage when raising capital for Seth or your customers?
- [44:15]
B
I think the good thing about, I mean for restaurants that are, you know, four walls trying to raise, I always say most people who are investing in that is like to find a third place, to have passion, passion for the, the chef, to believe in them. It's not necessarily to scale. Like, I mean unless you're scaling, you're meant to be multi unit.
- [44:31]
A
So you're saying you're looking for investors that are, that want a third place.
- [44:34]
B
Yeah. They want to feel invested in like their, this is like part of their home.
- [44:37]
A
This can be your third place.
- [44:38]
B
Exactly. I think inherently that's what they're investing into.
- [44:40]
A
How do you find those people?
- [44:42]
B
Well, a lot of, a lot of chefs we work with have those people in their orbit and then we're just helping them figure out how much they need to raise and what the capital is going towards. So they raise enough to not ask twice. Like that to me is the more the biggest thing we can do for them. Sometimes we help facilitate introductions. Because it's the right fit.
- [44:56]
A
Yeah. The number one reason why restaurants fail is because they're under capitalized. They don't know how much they need. Whatever you think it is.
- [45:03]
B
Right.
- [45:03]
A
Double it.
- [45:04]
B
Exactly. Go back to the numbers. And that's what we help them run that so they can ask for the right value and the right amount of money and give realistic expectations to the investor what they're going to return the investment.
- [45:13]
A
Also, are you getting at least a year of operating capital after you open?
- [45:17]
B
Right.
- [45:17]
A
Because it's not enough to just get opened. You need to figure it out.
- [45:21]
B
Right. And are you investing in the right stuff? Right. Like, have you made enough allocation to technology? Made an allocation, Yes.
- [45:27]
A
I was literally hoping that would come out. You people will spend a hundred thousand dollars on a pretty floor. Literally.
- [45:35]
B
Yeah.
- [45:35]
A
You know, maybe not 100, but like a hundred thousand dollars on brand new equipment, you know?
- [45:41]
B
Right.
- [45:42]
A
Brand new shelving, brand new tables.
- [45:44]
B
Yeah.
- [45:44]
A
And they will be like, I don't know, $2,000 a month for, you know, some executive assistant, executive help specialists or technology. Like, ooh, 600amonth for tech stack. Seems like a lot.
- [45:57]
B
Or like $2,500 for all of my marketing, digital marketing. It's like that. You're not going to get far with that, you know, So I think it's just. Just our brand. Like, I allocated $4,000 for a logo.
- [46:06]
A
Yeah. I think people, I mean, it's kind of like my dad is a realtor and he always say, like, like parents or children. Like the young people, the young couples today get in trouble because they grew up in these beautiful homes and they think that that's what they're gonna have, but they don't realize that their parents didn't start with that beautiful home. You don't go for the beautiful home out of the gates. You don't compare yourself to Danny Meyer out of the gates. Like, you got to build up to that. Yeah, Danny, like these people didn't start with what they have. They started small.
- [46:36]
B
Right.
- [46:36]
A
And then that there's their cash flow and their. Their people determine their growth. You can't go for that out of the gate. You got to start small and you got to prioritize people and resources.
- [46:46]
B
Yeah. The one question we always ask, and Jalis is our head of finance and analytics, he's brilliant. He's actually. He is here down here with me in New Orleans. But the one question we always ask, out the gate, depart, regardless of what work we're doing with the client, is What a success to you? Because what you learn from that is you want, you learn how big do they want to scale? Do they, are they meant to be single or multi unit? Do they want a certain quality of life? Do they want like let's build to that.
- [47:11]
A
Like, like let's not the vision.
- [47:13]
B
Yeah. It doesn't have to be a coast to coast multi unit brand. It can be a single brick and mortar and still be viable. And let's make that happen.
- [47:20]
A
And the biggest lesson I've learned, one of the biggest lessons I've learned on the show is that success is relative. And I think that one of my pushbacks with the world of media and you know, I don't want to get into that whole topic, but we create this image of what success is in the restaurant industry. And that image is not a real image. We forget that that image is a falsified image that we create to create a brand. And we're trying to draw consumers in, you know, like. But there's a reality that comes with that. Do you really want that?
- [47:56]
B
Right.
- [47:56]
A
And are you willing to sacrifice what you will need to sacrifice to get that? Because that isn't what hospitality is about. And the people that get that don't focus on that, you know. And I think that there's this image we're all chasing for what, you know, I mean, am I, am I out of line? Do you think by saying that or do you agree or disagree with.
- [48:15]
B
No, I think it's, I think it's right now evolving now. I think there was this, particularly in the late teens, there's this, as we looked at other entrepreneurs that were scaling to scale, that was, that was seen as the beacon of success.
- [48:27]
A
The growth is how many units, how much revenue.
- [48:29]
B
And I think recently I was at, on, on Monday I was the Southern Smoke foundation symposium here and someone, one of the topics about growth and one of the questions asked was like, why do you have to grow? And one of the two of the panelists said you don't have to. Well, and I think that's. You don't like, that's a great thing.
- [48:46]
A
Well, the question is, what is growth? Is growth more units? Is growth more money or is growth making a bigger impact?
- [48:54]
B
Yeah.
- [48:54]
A
Is it doing what you did yesterday better today?
- [48:57]
B
Yeah.
- [48:57]
A
Is it growing stronger relationships? Growth is relative. And I think that we have to redefine what growth is. Growth is making your community better, creating opportunity for others. And I think that is the one right there. Why do you scale? Because if I don't scale, the People that I'm responsible for are going to hit a ceiling.
- [49:15]
B
That is a huge one that came up time and time and we get that all the time as being like, I want to keep, I want to hold on to this person who's given me so much. I want to give them opportunity. I think that kind of going back to the finance, just keeping our finance hat on something that we've seen a lot. And there's actually a restaurateur here called Robert LeBlanc, LeBlanc and Smith and he's since last couple years has made everyone a managing partner.
- [49:37]
A
And this is, I think it's a huge gift. Yes. And I'm happy you said that because I want. While we're on the topic of finance, what are the business models going forward? And I think that that is, and I say it all the time, I think that along with outsourcing and learning how to do more with less and leveraging technology, I think the future, the best are going to be business models that have a lot of partners. And I think a lot of people hear that and they cringe.
- [49:59]
B
Yeah.
- [49:59]
A
Because like no, don't have partners. But I don't know if you can be the best and not have partners.
- [50:05]
B
And there's all kinds of ways of structuring those deals. Right.
- [50:07]
A
How do you recommend people do that?
- [50:09]
B
I mean I think there's, there can be profit sharing, rev sharing, bonus structures. True, true equity, you know, but you have to realize that like when it comes to a company like a restaurant, what is the exit like if you're giving phantom equity which is based off of an exit or some sort of monumental event like that has to happen. And so you want to make sure that whatever you're giving usually is a combination. We see equity, an equity play mixed with bonus structure tends to be incentivizing the day to day mixed with a long, a long term investment.
- [50:40]
A
And what kind of cut do you see or recommend in order to get to attract that talent?
- [50:44]
B
What do you give them? Such a good question. I think managing partners, it's so at the discretion of the owner operator. I think it also comes into like what is the. There's there usually be the balance of like how much money has the owner put in with retail and I mean, excuse me, real estate, build out all that stuff relative to the sweat equity someone's given. And then do you find that balance?
- [51:08]
A
Right.
- [51:09]
B
It's case by case or you sit there and say, listen, benchmark stakes are that you get 15 of this business 25%, four 40%.
- [51:18]
A
Right.
- [51:18]
B
I, I think ours, what I've seen most often across the board from our own clients and outside of our clients tends to be in that teen, like somewhere in that teens place where it's a huge investment but it's not full. You know, it's not like you're, you're bearing all the burden of signing, you know, lines of credit. You know, like there's a, there's a threshold where like that 18, 20% start getting into like what is a minority, majority owner, blah, blah. So I think you're just trying to. And then that's a big deal. But I think bonus structures really help to. Even if it's not the managing partner. But like what does the management level.
- [51:50]
A
Get these goals, anything above that we.
- [51:53]
B
Do like some kind of rep share bonus payout. I think, I think those are super incentivizing. And I think it's particularly if you Understand what your KPIs of your business are and you sit there and say our key value is retention, loyalty, bev, sales, whatever it may be and say, I want this, this. Like as an owner you're thinking to yourself what is going to turn the leaf for us as a business to keep, to change it or to like grow.
- [52:16]
A
Yeah.
- [52:17]
B
And then you incentivize accordingly and those incentives can change. It could be, you know, a yearly, quarterly and the cool thing.
- [52:24]
A
And we'll probably get into this with operations when we get into that, which is going to be our next topic. This could be a great segue. Is that the technology today, the data that you get is the. Is like a scorecard on steroids.
- [52:37]
B
Yeah.
- [52:37]
A
Like you can have so many KPIs to add bonuses for and to add. Before we move away from finance and raising money and this idea of scale, I, I really love what Uptown hospitality out of Charleston. Are you familiar with that?
- [52:51]
B
I am familiar, yeah.
- [52:51]
A
Yeah. What they do, I love. They, they're another one of these groups that like, I think think a majority of their management are equity partners in their concepts. And the way that they do it is they say, well, do you want to be a partner? This business is evaluated $2 million. All you got to do is put up 1%.
- [53:09]
B
Yeah.
- [53:10]
A
Put up 1% and we'll make you a partner. But that makes them. And you can't let anybody be a partner. They have to be vetted. And with the organization for, I think it's five years minimum. Five years working with a company. But if you can put up $20,000.
- [53:24]
B
Yeah.
- [53:25]
A
Then you can be an Equity partner. But you're, you know, they're putting money in. You're. You're raising capital. They're. If you're gonna give up $20,000, you're gonna take it seriously. And, you know, and I think that. That it's. It's such a low barrier to get people to give people a leg up, you know, and. And I just. I think that is brilliant. I want to have them on the show, and I want to teach people how to do this. I'm not good in the details, but I see things like this happening. I think that really excites me.
- [53:52]
B
Yeah. I think one. Same with the Southern Smoke Symposium on Monday. Max Goldberg from Nashville, who owns many. Awesome, awesome operator and just admire the work they've done up there.
- [54:05]
A
Ben and Max on the show.
- [54:07]
B
Amazing. So cool. Okay, I'm glad to hear that. But he brought up, you know, one of his goals. They have many values, and one of them was to create institutional, like, generational wealth and investment for their team. Like, that is. That is. That is something that is thinking about well beyond our own generations and investing into the next. And that is one of their core tenets, which I just loved because it's. It's making. So he does have, you know, he was just very open about his managing partners and all this stuff. And I was like. Because it is a core tenant of theirs, and as a result, they have people that have stuck around and doing great things.
- [54:41]
A
I'm so proud of the restaurant industry right now, because what I was looking for in 2020, 2012, when I was discovered, podcasts and people sharing information, we just weren't doing it in the sensory. If we. If they were doing. I didn't know where to find it.
- [54:53]
B
Yeah.
- [54:53]
A
But now it's, like, abundant. Now it's happening. Now it's the way. And I think I actually recorded a vid, a video this morning saying, you know, like, I. When I think about the work I want to do, I want to be a dealer of hope. And I think that in. In people, we find hope and finding people who are doing it and making an example, painting the picture for these, you know, this is what hope looks like. And we can have a shared vision for the industry, and we can literally manifest our own destiny for the industry if we have a collective vision.
- [55:22]
B
Yeah.
- [55:22]
A
The only way we can do that is if we talk and share about, you know, what's possible.
- [55:26]
B
Yeah.
- [55:26]
A
And Max Goldberg, Keith Benjamin, the Uptown hospitality group, what they're doing, we gotta amplify these people.
- [55:33]
B
Yeah. Totally agree. And there's some great examples, like, all across the country. Gives me. It does give me a whole lot of hope. Hope.
- [55:40]
A
Yeah. 1181, that was my Max Goldberg, if you're listening to this and you want to check out that episode, 1181 was the episode number. Okay, let's move over to the operations. Okay. When I think operations, I think technology, and I think it. It is all one financial opera. Like operations is also finance. I would say those are one and the same, too. What are your thoughts?
- [56:05]
B
I mean, the reason. Actually, I should have answered this. I should have brought this up earlier. The reason why we went after all of these categories of a business, those five pillars, is because we think that. And I'm a huge believer that an interdisciplinary approach is crucial because none of them can sit on a. You know, on their own. Like, you can't do finance not thinking about ops, not thinking about HR without.
- [56:22]
A
It's all connected.
- [56:23]
B
It's all connected.
- [56:23]
A
It's a bush. It comes back in.
- [56:24]
B
Totally. So that's. That's the reason why we did all these.
- [56:26]
A
It's not a hierarchy with branches.
- [56:28]
B
Yeah, no, no, you can't, like, isolate over there and then that one over. Over there.
- [56:31]
A
I try to categorize the content that I create. I'm like, what category does this go in?
- [56:35]
B
Yeah. And so that's why. So, yeah, they're. They're completely tethered. And it's funny because, like, in the before operations were like. It still are, don't get me wrong, were SOPs, critical path management, you know, steps of service. Like, those are inherently still part of operations. But I think as people think about that's kind of a. People assume you know that, or you. Or you can get to that pretty quickly. And then it is the technology. It's like, what's your tech stack? What are you. What are you tearing out? What are you prioritizing?
- [57:03]
A
So sorry, go ahead.
- [57:04]
B
I know I was gonna say, like, your point of sale is your heartbeat.
- [57:06]
A
Right. So I am curious and like, a lot of what I try to do if my. With my interviews is to dig for leads, dig for recommendation. Okay, so in 2025, what, like, if you have a dream client and you get to say, like, okay, like, I'm going to build you a tech stack. Here's what I Recommend. Maybe at one location and then again at. At say, 4 locations, looking to get to 10, what would you recommend?
- [57:30]
B
What the tech would actually be.
- [57:31]
A
Yeah. Or would you say, if you're at 1, trying to get to 10, do you go all in at one location for the 10 or when do you build and rope?
- [57:39]
B
Yeah, no, I, I'm a huge believer that there's if as long as you understand the technology and the data set to go to the, to go to the next. So let's say you have a point of sale system, reservation and inventory management, but you didn't get some sort of analytic dashboard. Right, but you know, that's a good one to go to in the future. But it's just like I'm not going to manage it. I don't have time to clean up the data. And also tech is only as good as the data.
- [58:05]
A
You feed it 100%. And by that if you get Restaurant365 or Restaurant Systems Pro, paying the monthly bill does not mean like it's, you just bought yourself a responsibility and you need to know, have somebody who knows how to do it right. And your team will only buy in one time. So if you don't do it right the first time, good luck motivating them and getting them excited to try to do it again.
- [58:28]
B
Could not agree more. And also having to retrain and. Right, but so my biggest thing is saying, okay, so let's say we're not ready to go to some sort of analytics dashboard or some aggregate, that's fine, but then how we, how are we setting ourselves up to make sure that all of our data is clean? So when we're ready to go and we make that investment. There's a really great company here out of here called Ingestion that I think is great and we've worked with them on some of our clients. But we know that a single brick and mortar that doesn't have the bandwidth to manage their data and to look at analytics to get flash reports like it doesn't, like they shouldn't be on it yet. And we've been, you know, I've talked to the, the founder there, Dan Meth, he's amazing. And you know, we've, it's very clear, we're like, yeah, we get it. Not a good fit, you know, and, and so anyway, all to say is I think it's a stepping stone. I think you have to sit there and say my tech budget is X, Y, Z. I think It's X in 20, 25, Y in 26, Z in 27. What are the products that I need in that, in that budget and constraints to get to multi unit and then what tech do I need when I don't have it Now? I think things like, like Opus is A really great one, but it's more enterprise. Right. So then. And I think a lot of technology starts with a small business like brick and independence and goes enterprise quickly because they realize that's where they. They scale. So it's more of saying, okay, if we're meant to scale, we're trying to get to that point. What are we building ourselves toward to get to that leap?
- [59:47]
A
Right. So to start. So for training, you recommend Opus out of the Gates?
- [59:51]
B
Oh, no, no. I. I think they're amazing. They're expense. You know, they're for a single brick and mortar. They're definitely an investment. I would say. I would say, like point of sale. Something like toast. I think a lot of people are biting at their heels. I'm interested by some new, like, Ponzo that. That's come out spot on.
- [60:07]
A
I'm happy you said spot on, but.
- [60:08]
B
Oh, good.
- [60:09]
A
So, yeah, what was the other one you said?
- [60:11]
B
Ponzo.
- [60:11]
A
Ponzo. I haven't heard that one.
- [60:12]
B
Yeah, it's a new one. They're. They're doing a lot of different. They're kind of integrate or aggregating and pulling together a lot of disparate tech stacks. So thinking about catering and a lot of different stuff all into your point of sale system that would otherwise be transactions and third parties.
- [60:27]
A
What is this called?
- [60:28]
B
Pon. This is Ponzo. P A N S O.
- [60:30]
A
First time I'm hearing about it. It.
- [60:31]
B
Yeah.
- [60:32]
A
Is there a jazz show going on next door?
- [60:34]
B
I think there's a jazz show going outside. How New Orleans of us. I know.
- [60:37]
A
And I could tell that you're a little stressed when you hear the piano going. I record in restaurants. This is nothing.
- [60:42]
B
I mean, honestly, it's really nice vibes.
- [60:44]
A
I just.
- [60:44]
B
I'm intrigued by the music. I'm here for it.
- [60:47]
A
I had Opie Omosu on the show from Chopping Block in Houston. Amazing African cuisine. What he's doing there with fast, casual, cool stuff. But it was like a bumping scene.
- [60:57]
B
Oh, really?
- [60:58]
A
It was like, happening. And we made a podcast happen.
- [61:01]
B
Amazing.
- [61:01]
A
Don't worry about the pain.
- [61:02]
B
Great. Well, then I won't worry about it at all.
- [61:04]
A
Why spot on? What. What has your interest in spot on?
- [61:07]
B
Well, how about this? My. We haven't. I'm most familiar with toast. We use it most often. It's industry standard, I'd say. I think. And I'm still a Toast fan. I know how to use it. I think it integrates well. I think people are trying to figure out what data they own, what data they don't who's integrating with whom? I think Spoton's trying to be more adaptable. I think when it comes to the reservation systems, it's amazing to watch.
- [61:28]
A
What do you mean? Yeah.
- [61:29]
B
What do you mean by more adaptable, more accessible? They're trying to be. They're trying to integrate better. They're trying to be more agile. How about that? Agile.
- [61:36]
A
Yeah.
- [61:36]
B
So I think TOAST has become really rigid.
- [61:39]
A
Exactly the words I was going to use. It's either you're on our platform, you play with us or you don't play like you, like we don't. They're very close. It's kind of like how like their credit card, like credit card processing, the new cloud base, they're closed systems. It's like you're either using us and what we got or nothing at all. In Spot on is trying to play well in the sandbox with other.
- [61:58]
B
Exactly that. And that's why. And I appreciate that. And again, it's a, it's an amazing thing for an employee to go from a toast to a toast and know how to use a point of sale system because they're already educated on it. Right. That's a gift. That's a huge gift.
- [62:09]
A
It's like putting on your resume. Resume. Like Microsoft, like.
- [62:13]
B
Exactly.
- [62:13]
A
You know.
- [62:14]
B
Yeah.
- [62:14]
A
How to play and use the tools.
- [62:17]
B
Yeah. And they're leading POS and I think Square restaurants is biting at their heels and I'm curious, but I think this is new, a new era of point of sale that's coming out to market, that's trying to be more agile that I'm, I'm very intrigued by and watching.
- [62:31]
A
Yeah. What do you think about the, the rumors that Square might be purchasing Restaurant365? Have you heard that rumor?
- [62:40]
B
I have not heard of that rumor actually, but I. Now you say it. I'm like, like, huh. I don't, I mean I wouldn't blame them if you have point of sale and you're trying to do inventory management. A lot of these roll ups have already happened like margins edge.
- [62:54]
A
But how many restaurants that use Toast also use R365?
- [63:00]
B
Oh, so you think they'll pull, they'll pull the customer base over 100. Do you think that they wouldn't use margin edge though? And like in terms of that integration.
- [63:09]
A
Here I tend to lean. I think margin edge is a great company. Any great technology, I, I lean in the direction of. To your point, what is your goal? Are you trying to scale?
- [63:19]
B
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
- [63:20]
A
Do you want to get to 10 locations you want to be like the spot in your, like in your market for X or you want to work with different people and help them develop their concepts. But you want to have a, like what is your goal? I think that if your goal is to get to 10, treat your little business like a big business.
- [63:36]
B
Yeah.
- [63:36]
A
And start from day one, build the house before you move into it. And I would say implement a tech stack from day one. You might have to do some volume in order to justify that. So figure out what that, what that throughput has to be from day one and reverse engineer it. Like make sure you have the, the capacity to pay for it.
- [63:54]
B
Right.
- [63:57]
A
Where was I going with this train of thought?
- [63:59]
B
Tech stacks, but 365 and square, right? Yeah. Integration.
- [64:03]
A
So I, I think because it's getting more and more expensive, you need to lean more on tech. And if you can build it from day one and then instead of trying to build it out while you're in flight.
- [64:15]
B
Yeah.
- [64:15]
A
You know, and I, I sometimes wonder if that's the best way. But at the same time is it an unnecessary cost? But at the same time is. Does it not pay for itself?
- [64:27]
B
Right.
- [64:27]
A
If you do it right.
- [64:28]
B
I think it depends on how fast you're scaling. I mean first and foremost, any operator listening, it always does not hurt to ask for a cost break. If you're, let's say you're going to Restaurant365, you're now going to five locations. You want to make the investment. You should, you should absolutely be asking for the onboarding to be in kind or to defer some sort of payment. Because it can't hurt to ask.
- [64:49]
A
Right.
- [64:49]
B
To like see and be like, hey, I'm not there now. But in that case, if you can defer payment, you can make the economics work. I can see making an investment into that. And I agree that you should to always get the tech stack that you need to make your business viable. I'm just thinking like if you're, and when I go into these, like there's a company called Biki for digital marketing. Yeah. So. And I think Loyalist is a great option for small business right now and we'll get into marketing in a second or opus as I mentioned for, for trainings. But there's other options that are, that are smaller in scale. But I love, I mean Rachel and what she's built there is like remarkable. But they are enterprise so you can't. But it doesn't make sense to have a one brick and mortar enterprise level training training system. Like you just have To. You have to have stepping stones. But you should know is what format files do they need? You know, when you. When you're trying to transition over.
- [65:34]
A
Right.
- [65:35]
B
That. That to me is where I go with. I don't disagree with you about. There's certain fundamentals that you should absolutely invest into.
- [65:41]
A
I just don't believe in the app trap of having one payment for one solution and having to duct tape all these things together. And God forbid somebody doesn't decide to change or sell their company and then like your integration thing doesn't work anymore and try to move all that data around between platforms. If you can go to an enterprise solution. When I say enterprise solution, I'm talking about an R365 or restaurant systems. Who sponsors my show. I am curious. One of my concerns with technology is that there are not enough players in the game.
- [66:13]
B
I think it's. Yeah. I mean, they're never enough. I think sometimes I feel like they're too many. When you're. When everyone's trying to wedge themselves into your tech stack.
- [66:20]
A
I can go back to 2017 and there are like a handful of POS companies I feel like were in the run. You know, there was Toast. It was Breadcrumb, it was Revel, it was, you know, gosh, names I've not.
- [66:32]
B
Heard about in a while, but they were all there. I know.
- [66:34]
A
You know, like, it was fragmented and then Toast came out as a clear front runner. And I don't know what percentage of the market Toast makes up, but I would say between Toast and Square, we're probably looking at close to 70% of the market. Market.
- [66:45]
B
Oh, easily.
- [66:46]
A
Yeah.
- [66:46]
B
I would say that's just that.
- [66:48]
A
That doesn't. That creates stagnant stagnation when we don't have competition. You don't have innovation.
- [66:54]
B
Yeah. Same with. I mean, health insurance right now.
- [66:57]
A
Right.
- [66:57]
B
But a whole nother topic.
- [66:59]
A
We gotta make sure we save time for that too. I haven't forgotten, man. I'm having fun talking.
- [67:02]
B
I know. This is so much fun. No, yeah, I. I definitely think there is, but I think that's why the Ponzes of the world are coming out. I'm really. That's why. Loyalists coming out. Blackbird. You know, there are. There are players coming out.
- [67:12]
A
Loyalists and Blackbird. What are those?
- [67:14]
B
So Blackbird has been Levinthal's new. They're doing a lot of like a loyalty play with the ambition, marketing, with the ambition of being a payroll payment processor.
- [67:23]
A
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- [68:59]
B
So Blackbird so Blackbird loyalties loyalists are both doing loyalty plays different ways. But they're, you know, they're trying to, they're realizing that the finance sales inventory has been aggregated on the loyalty. The customer data side is now trying to be I'm really interested about Blackbird because I think something that's happening is people are wanting to own their own data so as they should. As they should. But like a lot of, a lot of the pushback with these third party delivery services was that, you know, we all, they owned the data and the restaurants didn't own the data. So we know our customer base. Now we're starting to own more of.
- [69:37]
A
The data that we don't know our customers.
- [69:39]
B
I know, I know. I, I, I can I just point.
- [69:42]
A
Out the ludicrous like statement that that is we, this industry was born out of relationships. It's all about relationships. And I think we've lost sight of what the restaurant industry is. It's become so transactional that when we don't have an ability to communicate with our guests, that we accept that because we have access to a third party marketplace, that we have no control over how we show up in that marketplace. Like we're just so heads down, locked in the four walls of our business that we have no idea what's happening to us.
- [70:11]
B
But I think it's being prioritized more than ever, like doing digital marketing, doing loyalty programs, so on and so forth. But I'm interested because like Blackbird, you basically take your data with you. And I think when I think about, you know, again, I'm gonna go oscillate between healthcare and restaurants, but on the healthcare side, having your own medical records. Now digital medical records records is like a whole thing that you carry your own. So I think there's something in that, there's something that's similar in both of those.
- [70:37]
A
Interesting. Yeah. So let's just touch on HR real quick. Do you. Are there platforms, front runners that stand out to you? This is me selfishly looking for testimonials.
- [70:46]
B
Oh, yeah, Yeah. I would say, you know, when it comes to payroll, we've seen everything from Gusto, Paylocity, Paycom, so, so on and so forth. Some people go to ADP for peos. I think it's a scattershot. I think people are. A lot of people are using Toast payroll because it integrates with scheduling and your POS system, which is. Makes so much sense. I think that they're changing a lot of that right now. Like they're. I think that they had being Toast. Toast, excuse me. They purchased Stridex in 2019. And I think that they're really evaluating that integration and what other integrations they could be doing. So I have a feeling you'll probably see that to be changing pretty soon.
- [71:25]
A
Okay.
- [71:25]
B
If I could. Little finger in the air, wind blowing, read the room. I can just kind of see it, the painting, the writing on the wall.
- [71:32]
A
Yeah. Gusto used to be a past sponsor. I've been thinking about reaching out to them again to see if they want to dance again, because I've been hearing good things.
- [71:40]
B
I mean, we use it with a Sunday. We like them. But it makes more sense for my business where it's like salaried employees. Very consistent. I understand. If I were running a restaurant, having some sort of integration with my POS system makes a lot of sense. Yeah.
- [71:51]
A
Before anything else, you want to mention relative to hr, that that element of your business that you offer with, with Oyster Sunday, I always want to call it Sunday Oyster for some reason. I know if it's My dyslexia flare.
- [72:03]
B
Yeah. No, I would say the only thing with HR is that we do a lot of compliance. Employee handbooks and a lot of cultural handbooks. Now, not just the legal documents of what does it mean to be an employee, but how do we.
- [72:14]
A
What does it mean to be us?
- [72:15]
B
What does it mean to be us and employee and that. I love those. We did an amazing project with the Perrium Hotel Group. Like, you know, and re. You know, rel. Looked at their entire training manuals and how was it mean? The cultural handbook of that and that. That's something that we're seeing a lot more demand of. Not just the transactional documents that we have, but like, what does it mean to like, invest into this. Into this culture.
- [72:35]
A
Got it. No, I had a question. I lost it. Sorry. I'll come back to me. Oh, back to my. Well, me marketing. You mentioned Biki. What is Becky?
- [72:45]
B
Biki is something we use a while ago. They're now enterprise, but they're doing a lot of digital marketing, aggregating customer data to then segment and to really specifically talk to people uniquely. So as a digital marketer, you can see someone who came in the first time a thousand times, never been but on your mailing list. But they're. They're integrating with POS Systems Loyalist is doing that play now. You know, that. That I think I'm really intrigued by because you had just so much more knowledge about your business when those. When those data sets cleanly lay over each other.
- [73:17]
A
Right. So instead of just doing a blanketed LTO limited offer, you can be like, this person comes in and they get fish every time they're here every time. Let's customize an LTO for that individual or that. That avatar.
- [73:29]
B
Yes.
- [73:30]
A
We can group these types of people.
- [73:32]
B
And you can do all kinds of segmentations. That's something we were really excited to work. Work with them. They ended up again moving to enterprise. It did make sense for our clients. Seem more. So we all for it.
- [73:39]
A
Yeah. I'm happy you mentioned that because that's kind of a pet peeve of mine. I feel like you get all these companies that start out and they sound so good. It's like, oh, this is great. And this is a leveling the playing field. And then they quickly realize that in order for them to make money, they need to target restaurants that have 20 units or more, because that's where the money is. And then the. The independent is like, oh, well, so much. Much for the. The leveled playing field.
- [74:02]
B
Yeah. I mean, it happens time Again, I can't. I mean as an owner operator, I get it, totally get it. And no, no knock on any of that.
- [74:09]
A
You got to make money. Right. That's capitalism.
- [74:11]
B
But I think that there, But I think what it does, it leaves opportunity for those who really care about the industry, who want to deal with SMBs. They can get in and do something powerful. That's what we're doing. Yeah.
- [74:20]
A
Like they'll climb the ladder. They start with the little guys and they move on to the big guys.
- [74:23]
B
Exactly.
- [74:24]
A
Yeah.
- [74:25]
B
And I think, I love what we do do.
- [74:26]
A
Yeah. And I'm excited too. One of my biggest hopes for AI isn't in like the LLM side of it and like the, you know, like the, the aggregating a ton of data and spitting out answers. It's going to be when we can teach it to do things like develop technology in programming and create solutions. Yeah, specific. I think when we, if my concern is that we're all going to use the same AI tools tool and that we're, it's going to become a kind of a same situation where we all default to chat GPT and then there, there's no other room for the other AIs to evolve and it becomes another Google, you know, where like they just own everything because they have all the resources. I think we have to be very intentional about fragmenting AI and, and spreading out that, that game so we can use it on a small scale.
- [75:16]
B
I know that Bezos right now is doing a new AI company that's basically taking, and I can't remember the name of it, excuse me, but it's not based off language models, but it's based off of like tactile. So like the idea of going into the world and seeing and touching things and then building models off that. So it's not just about the aggregate of the Internet. And I think that, I think it's like called global language models or so like something that's tactile using like the.
- [75:41]
A
Cars that drive around and do Google Maps to.
- [75:43]
B
Yeah, stuff like that. And so I'm, I'm interested to see what happens. I'm not saying it solves our problem or like our needs, but it could, you know. Yeah.
- [75:50]
A
But I hope that as AI evolves we, we can fragment. I, there's, I, I book out there. My, my listeners already know what I'm going to say. Power in Progress by Daron AKU aku. I think I'm saying his name correctly. He's a professor at Harvard, mit. It's called Power in progress. He also wrote why Nations Fail.
- [76:11]
B
Oh, same author? Yeah, yeah.
- [76:13]
A
And it's like an anthropological approach of technology over time and how whoever controls the technology, controls the agenda, controls the narrative and what we're coming, what we're looking down the barrel of right now and like, how we have to be very intentional as conscious capitalists to what we. And who we invest in.
- [76:33]
B
Oh, I would love to read that.
- [76:34]
A
It's really amazing. It's really good.
- [76:36]
B
Yeah.
- [76:37]
A
Yeah.
- [76:37]
B
So my sister, actually, I'll give a little plug to her. My sister's a professor at the University of Richmond, as is her husband, who's a big data stats guy, and she's digital humanities. And it's amazing because they've been tackling. They. You know, they had a national Diamond Humanities grant, NIH grant from basically digitize all facial recognition at the Library of Congress's like, Library of Photography, you know, of certain eras. Like, that's the way their mind thinks. So you really realize this stuff has been around for a long time. It's just how we're utilizing has become more digestible and more obtainable. We use a lot of small language models for even at OS benefits. We have. We have this. This kind of like individual or this person, I guess, this Persona. Her name's Pearl and she's the one who speaks all the time. Persona.
- [77:23]
A
So Pearl, son.
- [77:24]
B
Yeah, and oysters. You get it. Anyway, so she. But she has a very clear voice. And we use. We run everything through that model, you know, to pump out. And I think that. I think, you know, when I think about things that restaurants can adopt quickest. Let me take a step back. I have two things I want to talk on tech before we move forward is I'm so intrigued by the reservation system. Resi versus open table.
- [77:50]
A
Yeah, marketing. Sorry, I was. I was excited for this one too.
- [77:52]
B
Oh, yeah, yeah. No, I mean, we know we have so much more to cover. We could talk to you all day. I'm really intrigued by the resi. OpenTable. I think the one thing that stands out to me is opentable looks more like a tech company than ever before.
- [78:04]
A
Yeah, they. They came out of the gates the. The clear front runner. They were like the reservations platform. Then they pissed off a bunch of people and then they went oops, and we gotta change the way we do things. And they have. They have done a 180 and continue retrieval train of thought as to why.
- [78:20]
B
I just think it's. I think they've become unbelievably. I don't want to Use the word relevant, but just adaptable to what owner operators need. And it's very interesting to watch it from afar.
- [78:30]
A
Yeah. That's another one that scares me where there's like two companies, like legitimately two companies right now. Used to be three Talk was in the run, but then they got absorbed by Resi.
- [78:38]
B
Yeah.
- [78:38]
A
And we literally have two companies in the second largest industry in the world, hospitality, food and beverage, that control all of reservations.
- [78:49]
B
Yeah.
- [78:49]
A
How do we get here?
- [78:50]
B
Yeah. I think it was a marketing channel mostly. Right.
- [78:53]
A
Like this is why I struggle having sponsors lately. Because I'm. Because I. I want to talk real. And you can't.
- [78:59]
B
Yeah.
- [79:00]
A
If they're paying your bills.
- [79:01]
B
Totally. I mean we're lucky to be brand agnostic. We have preferred tech stacks. But I think my biggest thing is like if you live in, you know, somewhere in Oklahoma versus New York City, you have two different choice of reservations that probably are very, very clear what you need.
- [79:13]
A
Yeah. It's case by case. Like what's your market? Like what are the. Where are the people?
- [79:17]
B
Exactly. And I think that you just have to make that choice. Neither. Both will get to the end result. Right. And both will hopefully play nice in the sandbox for a long time. But I'm, I'm really watching OpenTable right now because I'm just there, there's becoming so innovative.
- [79:32]
A
Yeah.
- [79:33]
B
And so adaptable that I'm really excited to see what they do.
- [79:36]
A
Which innovations have you the most excited. And then we're, I promise we're going to switch over and we're going to talk about OS benefits.
- [79:41]
B
Yeah, totally. I would say that they're actually Cheryl, who is the vp, was at Southern Smoke Foundation's symposium on Monday in New Orleans and she was talking about so much around, just all the work they're doing with AI in the back end and a lot of it even just reviews, like to respond to reviews, to queue up and to have like a, you know, 90 something percent chance of not editing it and submitting because it's in your voice. Like because they're aggregating all of your previous reviews and decision responses. Like that stuff to me is like, that saves time.
- [80:15]
A
Yeah. But what if you're coming out of the gates with that technology? You don't have an aggregation of backlog data of your tone and your voice.
- [80:21]
B
Totally. Then you need to. You got a lot of work to do. Right. And like I'm with you. I'm totally with you. But you could do it off of the. Their Instagram. You could, you could Be on their social media. You could be on their mailing.
- [80:33]
A
I'm like, this is my tone exactly. Like, you can train it.
- [80:35]
B
Yeah.
- [80:37]
A
I do wonder sometimes. So it's like this, like, is that really, like, hospitality? If you're having a bot, like, communicate for you, are we losing the human element? But I would argue at the same time that the consumer got way unreasonable with their expectation for us to be able to be present digitally and in person.
- [80:53]
B
Right.
- [80:54]
A
It's like, like there was like an imbalance there where, like, being in the restaurant industry sucked because you're being pulled to be compounded. We didn't get into this industry to sit at a computer all day and to message and chat with people. Like.
- [81:06]
B
Right.
- [81:06]
A
That expectation from the consumer is just wonkers.
- [81:09]
B
Well, also our, our, our communication touch points were so disparate. Where you had. You could come in through social, email in the door, text someone, what, you know, like.
- [81:19]
A
And so we had omnipresent.
- [81:20]
B
Omnipresent, you're always on. And. And I think that was one thing we did for a couple of our clients, saying, okay, what revenue, what communication streams do you want to manage?
- [81:28]
A
Yeah.
- [81:28]
B
Like, where is your email and then your reservations and Instagram. Your Instagram direct message. Great. On. On. Anything else on meta. So Facebook, whatever, we're going to have an auto response being like, thank you so much for inquiry. If you'd like to talk to us, please contact us here, because if you don't respond, they're pissed. And so it's more of. I think it's more of setting expectations. Patience. Right.
- [81:48]
A
What about marquee? Is that a tool that you looked into, leveraging?
- [81:51]
B
I've never used them. We know none of our restaurants have used them.
- [81:53]
A
I think it's really cool.
- [81:54]
B
Yeah.
- [81:55]
A
They basically act like an aggregator.
- [81:57]
B
That's great.
- [81:58]
A
Where they create a dashboard where you can pull all that information but also push.
- [82:02]
B
Yeah. So now you see, that's a great tool.
- [82:04]
A
Yeah.
- [82:04]
B
Suite was one in social when I was at momofuku, which is probably. I don't even know if it's around anymore. Yeah. But yeah, there's also a company called Slang. Have you heard about that?
- [82:13]
A
Yeah. Sling AI. I know they're doing a lot of cool partnerships with Open Table right now.
- [82:16]
B
They're doing great. Yeah. I met Alex and he. He's really smart and I would love.
- [82:20]
A
To get them on the show.
- [82:21]
B
Yeah. I would love to make that introduction for you, please. But, yeah, I mean, that's a great example of, like, phone. Phone lines. Like, we have One. One restaurant we work with out in Los Alamos, California. Well, in the California kind of north of Ohio area. Greg Ryan. And since the day we met him, he's like, I do not have telephones in my restaurant. And we're like, we love that for you. And of course, he had people, like, bitched about it, Right. They were, like, angry that he didn't have television.
- [82:44]
A
Sometimes it's nice to be able to call while you're like, you don't want to be on your phone looking up the information because you're driving.
- [82:49]
B
Right.
- [82:50]
A
But that's where an AI bot where you can call and have a conversation. I think that phones are going to come back because some people. Me, I hate using these things to communicate. I'm holding my thumbs up right now. Have we mentioned we're dyslexic? Like, I make silly typos. I think you experienced a couple of them already. 24 hours.
- [83:08]
B
I dictate all my text.
- [83:09]
A
It's fine. Yeah. And I. I talk funny, apparently, because my phone never knows what I'm saying. I just want to have a conversation with people. There's a reason why I drive across the country to have conversations, because I don't like doing it through technology.
- [83:20]
B
I remember being so vividly. I was walking through Washington Square park in New York. I was up there for work, and I was talking to Greg on a call, and he was just like, we got to figure out Google voice. I can't do it. I just remember because he just like, I. I don't. I appreciate that. Having that, like, I won't open that channel up. And I was like, good for you. Don't do it.
- [83:36]
A
We got 12, 22 minutes. All right, 22 minutes. OS benefits.
- [83:41]
B
Let's do it.
- [83:41]
A
Let's go deep into so much talk about. So when did you get the idea for OS benefits?
- [83:45]
B
2021. On a. On a run.
- [83:47]
A
Okay. During a run.
- [83:49]
B
During a run. During COVID and. Yeah.
- [83:53]
A
Jamming next door, man.
- [83:54]
B
I know. I hope you can hear this. Sick tunes. Sorry to interrupt you.
- [83:58]
A
Just going.
- [83:59]
B
Just going for it. Some. Some true New Orleans music right here. I. Yeah, I was on a run, and it kind of dawned on me being like, there's got to be another path forward. And so I spent about two years tinkering and tinkering, tinkering. And I think everyone's like, why'd you do this? And I was like, well, grit and ignorance probably is why I built this company.
- [84:16]
A
Ignorance is bliss.
- [84:17]
B
Ignorance is bliss. Particularly this one. When it comes to healthcare, But I mean I won't go into all the grid of like how we got there. But I, I would say the biggest turning point was we were tinkering and tinkering, tinkering. Did an mvp, got into an accelerator program, realized we're really sitting on something that could be possible. And in 24 I found an insurance company that was willing to bind to us as an association. So we set up, we went through all this legal work building trust associations binding to every 50 states. A lot of work. A lot of work work. And as a result by doing that we were able to buy into health insurance and then we're able to open it up to all states with exception of Hawaii. I'm sorry, Hawaii and there. And then we're able and able to go to the races and find people. So we started, we onboarded health insurance of June of 24. So let me take a step back what it inherently is, it's a health tech company. I'm now a broker, health insurance broker to add on to something I didn't being a card I never imagined playing. And, and also life insurance and annuities. Let me tell you about studying for that. That was a.
- [85:23]
A
Do you know bar and restaurant insurance or bar restaurant insurance dot com. My mind is thinking, I think I shouldn't introduce you guys. Yeah, he has the technology but as a broker.
- [85:35]
B
So he's probably brokering directly. If I could imagine not knowing this person. He's probably brokering directly with. With fully funded like the UnitedHealthcare is Blue Cross, Blue shields in the world.
- [85:45]
A
I think he's doing insurance though, not like health insurance. He does like restaurant insurance.
- [85:49]
B
Oh like general liability and things like that.
- [85:52]
A
He's a broker for that type of insurance.
- [85:53]
B
Oh great. Yeah, I would love to meet him.
- [85:54]
A
Sorry, I don't know. I think. Anyway, I digress. Keep going.
- [85:56]
B
No, not at all. No, I would love to meet him. So what we're basically we sat there and said okay, if we can get the association, we have the right broker, we have the right, excuse me. Insurance on hand. We could bind and make this health insurance available for all, every state in America. And now so we launched our first pilot in June of 2024. We had 100 renewal into 25. So every 12 months we have 100 retention. And we're like, oh, we're sitting on something. And so then we built at the same time we built the entire tech stack. We did customer journey built the tech stack and now we are, we have our health insurance where the benefits administrator and we're the payment processor. Usually those three things are three different businesses.
- [86:38]
A
Say it one more time.
- [86:39]
B
Health insurance, Health insurance benefits administrator.
- [86:42]
A
So what's that?
- [86:43]
B
So we are the technology that administers the benefits. So right now, if anyone on this podcast listening, you probably exchange PDFs with your broker. This could be for general liability for your company, all the way down to your health insurance. You're like, I need to get my census. I have to get Social Security numbers, I need date of birth, all this stuff.
- [87:00]
A
What, what features do you want? What program do you want?
- [87:02]
B
Exactly. So you get all this data, da, da, da, da, and you have to put it into an Excel sheet, and then you have to hand it over and you have one field wrong, you come back, you have to re edit it and go back. And it's analog as hell. Just analog. Analog, back and forth. So we've completely automated it. You have six steps where you basically come in, give us the employers, the employee's name, first name, last name, email and phone number, and we take care of everything else.
- [87:26]
A
Okay.
- [87:26]
B
You decide your contribution level, what plans you want of ours, and it takes you about six minutes.
- [87:30]
A
So you customize it by employee, per employee. It's a per employee, customizable, like you can set up your own plan, but you just, you're under the umbrella of.
- [87:39]
B
Your employee, of your employer.
- [87:40]
A
Yeah, sorry, your employer.
- [87:41]
B
Yeah, exactly. So your employer chooses to opt into health insurance, unlocks it for your entire company, and then you're off to the races.
- [87:47]
A
Is it essentially because it's like purchasing, like leverage, having all these people un. Under one umbrella, that is benefits.
- [87:53]
B
Okay, so we, we're the plan sponsor. We have economy of scale. We bind together. We de. Risk the entire population. It really is, I don't say this in Jessica, it is the first of its kind for this industry. And we're, we're able to bind anyone from 12 employees up to several hundred.
- [88:12]
A
Do you have any stories associated with the success you've had? The, the, the feedback?
- [88:18]
B
I mean, there's times where like, people call me or like I run into them and they tell me like, if I didn't have this, what that would have happened? And it gives me chills. Like, we, I met.
- [88:26]
A
Give me one story.
- [88:27]
B
There was one person in particular that I ran into during Tales of the Cocktail. And they were telling me how they had an issue behind, like, their eye. And it turned out to be this like, almost like torn retina mixed with like this like.
- [88:38]
A
And if they didn't have insurance, would they have Gotten that checked out, they.
- [88:41]
B
Would not have gotten it checked out. And the bill itself was like, you know, X amount of thousands of dollars, I can't remember. Tens of thousands of dollars. It was completely covered. And it would have put a medical debt, you know, like it's things like that. Or are people getting it for the first time ever, you know, because they've never been able to afford it and to protect their children. And like, you know, our plans truly meet the needs and the demand of our teams. They're. They're built for our teams, they're built for the budget of our teams. And we're completely upfront. So we give everything over up front. We get, you give your summary benefits and coverage. You get the formularies of all your drugs that you can get or can't get. We give you all of the. We give you an entire database of physicians that are on there and networks. We're in one of the largest networks, hospital networks in the system. And we sit there and say, you need to look at this and tell if it's. If it's right for you. Come on. If it's not, we will find something else for you.
- [89:31]
A
Yeah.
- [89:31]
B
As a broker now, being a full broker, I'm appointed to other insurance carriers. I can go find you another plan.
- [89:36]
A
So you said you're part broker, part tech. What was the. Those three.
- [89:40]
B
So broker benefits. Benefits. Administrator slash tech. Like the tech product.
- [89:46]
A
The user experience.
- [89:46]
B
The user experience is fully automated. You can onboard and offboard your team in the platform. We have invoice, everything's in there. And then the last part is the. Is payment processor. So we also are able, we're working with our bank to basically build in and back added payments. So we're taking it. We'll be able to pull in the money and send it out to the insurance carriers directly.
- [90:07]
A
Okay, so you also work with insurance. So as the broker, you're working with insurance carriers. Is that. That's the broker part?
- [90:17]
B
I am a broker.
- [90:18]
A
Okay, so.
- [90:21]
B
So as a. Yeah, take a step back. So as it's kind of like. I kind of equivalent to like liquor or alcohol sales. Right. You have the producer, distributor and the retail or the end user, the restaurant. Right, I'm the distributor.
- [90:35]
A
Okay.
- [90:36]
B
So the producer is the insurance companies. The distributor is the. The broker. The end user is the customer.
- [90:42]
A
Okay. Are you familiar with the companies like Mercer by any chance?
- [90:47]
B
I don't know Mercer.
- [90:48]
A
So I know this because my girlfriend is a project manager for Mercer. And I think the way that I describe it and I Hope I'm doing a good job. This, she's probably going to listen to this because this is like in her wheelhouse. I hope I do a good job, babe. She, they, they are like. She's a pro. She's a pro project manager from Mercer. And the way that they, they kind of work with Fortune 500 companies where they, they have a program, an insurance program. They customize to optimize the benefits and the cost efficiency for the. So like, do you kind of do that too?
- [91:18]
B
So. Yes. So we basically we have. What's a little bit different is that we have our own. Own as an association, we have our own four plans, ACA compliant health insurance plans that are OS benefits plans.
- [91:27]
A
So it's a pro. It's a plan. Your, your plan, you implement the plan for the. In this case, like Mercer works with like Fortune 500 companies, like Big companies. Like.
- [91:37]
B
And we're doing. For independence.
- [91:38]
A
Yeah. And you, you do that for independence where you kind of put the programming together and then you license the program out to the insurance company. Like this is where I kind of get a little.
- [91:48]
B
No, yeah, let me get a little simpler. So we are as. You join the associate as a member, you join the association. You're in the pool, you're in the family. We're in it.
- [91:56]
A
So let me. I think I. So the, the companies, like I know other insurance companies will use the Mercer plan. So Mercer sells programming to insurance companies and those insurance companies like will lay out and implement the, the programming for the Fortune 500 company.
- [92:17]
B
No, we're a little different. So basically what it is is that we negotiate with the insurance carrier. We bring the, those insurance plans into our ecosystem along with over 30 wellness benefits from childcare, dog walking, women's health, culinary tools and apparel, continuing education. All those are aggregated onto one dashboard. As an employer, let's say yourself, you sit there and say, I would like to be part of OS benefits. Really? Great. Come on in. You bind, you bind to OS benefits. You unlock this whole world for your team and you're off to the races.
- [92:48]
A
Yeah. So I think what's cool about what Mercer does is they look, they have all these data points and they can see how the Fortune 500 company employee is using the insurance and they can say based off of your insurance plan and how your employees actually use the insurance, that jazz, there's a better way. There's a better package for you that's optimized for the demographic. The, the maybe there's a lot of people that share this. A similar Sickness.
- [93:14]
B
Yeah.
- [93:14]
A
In your company. And like you don't need this, but you need this. So they, they help kind of tailor the ideal coverage for the demographic, the usage of the employee.
- [93:26]
B
So we theoretically we could continue to do that as we evolve.
- [93:29]
A
I was going to say, I think that could be like group buying power.
- [93:32]
B
So we could also sit there and say, here's our current plans, here's our next.
- [93:34]
A
And with AI and all those data points we have, all the claims, like there's a lot of hope. There's a lot of cool things happening right now. And I just wanted to plant that seed because I learned a thing. I want only one thing about the world of insurance.
- [93:48]
B
She'll be proud of you.
- [93:49]
A
Yeah, I hope. I, I probably totally butchered it. Let's be honest. Anything else that hasn't come out in terms of what you're doing, important method messaging you want to get out.
- [93:59]
B
I think the biggest thing is like at OSA Sunday, we're always. We love talking to new operators, learning and giving any. It being an open book. So if there's anyone out there that wants to talk to us, we do free consultations. Give us a ring. And I think my last thing is for OS benefit specifically is that I think that care is an issue of care in this industry, of access to care and not going to medical debt as we talked about earlier in the, in the podcast. But I think it's also an enormous issue of recruitment and retention.
- [94:28]
A
100. I was literally just thinking that.
- [94:29]
B
Yeah.
- [94:30]
A
How do we, how do people expect to treat us? Seriously, how do we be. How do we go toe to toe with other industries for employment if we can't even offer insurance?
- [94:38]
B
Right.
- [94:38]
A
Sorry.
- [94:39]
B
And I think. I'm with you. And I think that the market right now is in a tailspin when it comes to health insurance. And I think that the next generation wants more. And so I think that like they should deserve it. Yeah. And so I would just say like anyone who is interested in health insurance or knows someone else who is or needs or needs it, like we're, we can bind people's little two groups, you know, and I. And that does not exist right now. Like, you know, defining a medical plan for two people is hard, but we're aggregating all these people together. It's community and power. We're going, going for scale. The same way fractional work works. Right. Like, like we can fractionalize it to make all. Everyone better. The same motto stands.
- [95:20]
A
How do I know once you guys gather some momentum, this thing gets big? And there's opportunity for you to work with the bigger companies. You're not going to just focus on the 20 plus unit operators.
- [95:29]
B
Listen, at OSA Sunday we had that option and we're not doing it. So.
- [95:32]
A
Why not?
- [95:33]
B
Because I believe in small business.
- [95:36]
A
Why?
- [95:36]
B
Because I love them.
- [95:37]
A
Why?
- [95:38]
B
Oh, I love this. Because it's a world I want to see myself been.
- [95:42]
A
Why?
- [95:44]
B
Because I rather have autonomy and agency of making change than to be a cog in a machine.
- [95:51]
A
Is that four wise or five wise? I think I might have one more why on you. Why?
- [95:57]
B
Because I think innovation happens in small and independent business.
- [96:01]
A
Yeah. And I mean it's why I continue to focus on the independent operator as a host. Because those are the people who need that help and there's a lot of resources out there that focus on the big companies and, and covering the big companies and to each their own. No shade. But there if there's anybody who needs help, it's the independent.
- [96:19]
B
Yeah.
- [96:19]
A
And do we really want to shine an example and make an example of 100 unit plus operators? Like I don't know what the answer is and I'm not trying to.
- [96:27]
B
Yeah.
- [96:28]
A
Throw shade. I need to learn how to be more diplomatic. But at the same time I hear you.
- [96:34]
B
But.
- [96:35]
A
But it's just like freedom is my number one core value. And I, I do see, you know I'm very much tend to be in the middle of the road when it comes to more government or more freedom like capital. But then corporations and there's a balance to be struck. I don't want to see a future that is a cor. Corporatocracy. I think I'm saying that correctly where like we are really close to that. You know. How much of the world does Meta and Google influence two companies? How much influence those two companies have?
- [97:08]
B
Right.
- [97:09]
A
I can't get through a day without touching that company at least once. The answer to marketing right now is Google. And that terrifies me.
- [97:18]
B
Yeah.
- [97:19]
A
You know they should. No company should have that much influence.
- [97:23]
B
Yeah. But I think too like anyone who's doing marketing, not just SEO. Geo. Right. Generative engine optimization. Like there's. It's gonna. I mean I think it's a feedback mechanism. It may not be quick enough but I do think that the next generation is less. They're more analog. They're trying to be. It always like the pendulum swings both ways. And I think that we'll feel it in politics, we'll feel in technology, we'll feel it in humanity generally. I, you know and I Think that we're in. We're in a far, far swinging one way and I think will swing back in the coming years.
- [97:56]
A
1% of the population controls like 99% of the resources. But when 99% of the people get on the same page and communicate and share decisions, and we consciously make purchasing decisions. Conscious capitalism. That is what conscious capitalism is. We. Money still runs the show. If we are very intentional about who we give our resources to, that I think we forget that we have a lot of influence. And the restaurant industry is the second largest industry in the world, behind healthcare. In government, technically, we're the third.
- [98:31]
B
Right, Right.
- [98:33]
A
But I think we don't realize our influence and our. We don't realize our. Our ability to. It's the food and beverage, like food has been changing from. We started this conversation earlier talking about how food popped off the scientific revolution. Our entire existence is. Is given to food. We are.
- [98:50]
B
We are.
- [98:50]
A
We are because of our relationship with food. Food is life. And we are dealers of food.
- [98:55]
B
Right.
- [98:55]
A
We have a lot of influence. We can. We can go further together.
- [99:00]
B
Yeah. I mean, it's health, shelter, and food. Right. The three most necessary things. We're tackling two of them. And we're not getting on shelter yet.
- [99:08]
A
And the thing above that is being seen. Hospitality. I don't think we realize how important.
- [99:13]
B
And it is. Yeah.
- [99:14]
A
Community, beyond your physiological insecurity needs. It's being seen.
- [99:20]
B
Yeah.
- [99:21]
A
That's how human hospitality is.
- [99:23]
B
Yeah.
- [99:24]
A
It's crazy when you put it that way.
- [99:25]
B
I agree. And robots won't do that.
- [99:26]
A
Nope.
- [99:27]
B
AI won't do that. But they do make things more efficient. So I'm here for it.
- [99:31]
A
Thank you so much.
- [99:32]
B
It's such a pleasure.
- [99:33]
A
It was fun. I'm so happy we made this happen. I'm so happy I realized that you're not an oyster.
- [99:37]
B
I am not. Last funny story. Kind of come full circle on that. When we were going for our trademark, I had to for Oyster Sunday back in 2019, I had to resubmit my application twice to prove how. In which we did and not indeed not sell oysters on Sunday. I was like, I do not carry inventory. I do not have a brick and mortar. I do not purchase oysters. And they're finally, after two rounds, gave it to us.
- [99:59]
A
Yeah. I like to wrap up every conversation by having my current guest call out my future guests. I really have taken pride in trying to keep this as journalistic as possible. I don't want to be the one to decide who made gets made. Who gets made An Example of. So who do you respect and admire in the industry? Somebody who's doing it right. Making money while making a difference. I don't. It's not all about money, but fiscal responsibility is important.
- [100:25]
B
Yeah.
- [100:26]
A
Who's making money? Who's making an impact? Who comes to mind?
- [100:29]
B
Well, the two. One from our conversation earlier is from slang. AI. Alex, you should definitely meet him.
- [100:34]
A
Where's he based?
- [100:35]
B
I believe New York City.
- [100:36]
A
Okay.
- [100:36]
B
Not mistaken. I'm almost positive of that, actually. I'll say yes to that. Chris Shepard. You got to get that. That guy on the pod.
- [100:43]
A
Yeah.
- [100:44]
B
And Elizabeth Meltz from Empath out of New York.
- [100:47]
A
I feel like I'm T. Rex over here.
- [100:49]
B
Oh, yeah, Chris.
- [100:51]
A
I gotta write these down.
- [100:52]
B
Chris Shepard and then Elizabeth Meltzer.
- [101:00]
A
Where's. Where's she, Elizabeth?
- [101:01]
B
New York.
- [101:02]
A
And what's her concept?
- [101:03]
B
Empath. She does a lot of, like, mediation work and.
- [101:06]
A
Okay.
- [101:06]
B
In the industry. She's. She's brilliant.
- [101:09]
A
And what was in slang? Who's the individual again?
- [101:11]
B
Alex. Alex.
- [101:13]
A
All right, look out, Alex. Elizabeth and Chris. That's two episodes in a row. Chris, I'm coming for you, man. I'm coming. I'm gunning for you. I'd love to get you on the show. This is where I say thank you so much. And how do we. How do we follow up? I would love to have you do a Q and A and engage my. My community. Restaurant community to. To answer any questions after today's episode. So we'll have you there. And I didn't. I didn't warn you that that was coming, so sorry to blindside you, but how else can we connect if we're really interested in. In finding out more about what you offer?
- [101:42]
B
Yeah, definitely. The two websites are oyster Sunday.com and then OS Benefits Co are our two websites. And then if you want to get in touch with me directly, Elizabeth with a z at. @oystersunday.com would be best. Beautiful. So get in touch.
- [101:58]
A
Beautiful. And stick around for the closing thoughts. We'll have dates for you if you are interested in engaging Elizabeth and asking questions. We'll let you know when that's going down. And I cannot do what I do without people like you taking time to share their knowledge, perspective, and all you got going on, man. There is no questioning. You are unstoppable.
- [102:15]
B
Oh, thank you.
- [102:16]
A
Cheers. What up, Unstoppables? If you enjoyed today's conversation with Elizabeth Tilton, the founder and CEO of Oyster Sunday and OS Benefits, then you can. She actually wants to have a conversation. She actually pitched this one to me. She wants to talk about a way to explore a new path to healthcare, one that's built for modern work, tested in hospitality, and designed to scale far beyond it. So just calling it that. Hospitality is the test kitchen for healthcare. We all know our healthcare systems. We need a new approach. It's not what we're doing is not working. So I'm open to hearing this, this approach and what she has to say. So if you're interested to be sure to join us on February 25th at 11am for coffee with Eric. We're gonna let her lead the conversation. This is open conversation. Ask her questions, you engage her. I'm moderating, and I can't wait to hear what comes out of her mouth and the questions you have have. So head over to Restaurant Unstoppable.com live to be a part of this conversation and all of the live conversations we're having in our community where I'm literally just helping good people connect with good people. We're having a blast. Tons of great stuff is coming out of these conversations. We want you to be a part of it. And if you're not in the network, but you want to join this conversation because. Because you're really interested in the subject and you just want to join this conversation, then we got your back. Then just head over to restaurantstoppable.com CW Coffee with Eric, and we'll get you the link to join this one. This first one's on me. We'll see you there.