Interview with Hooters of America CEO Sal Melilli about moving from sink to C-suite, diversifying income streams, and celebrating 40 years of Hooters Girls.
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00:00 Welcome to Restaurant Influencers presented by Entrepreneur.
00:03 My name is Sean Walsh, founder of Cali BBQ and Cali BBQ Media.
00:08 In life, in the restaurant business, and in the new creator economy,
00:12 we learn through lessons and stories.
00:14 I want to give a special shout out to Toast,
00:16 our primary technology partner at our restaurants here in San Diego.
00:20 They power so many of the restaurants that we have on the show.
00:24 Thank you for believing in the power of storytelling.
00:27 Thank you for giving us digital hospitality tools to help us power our restaurants.
00:31 And thank you for giving us the stage to bring on guests like the guest we have today.
00:35 Today, we have the CEO of Hooters America, Sal Malili.
00:40 Sal, welcome to the show.
00:42 Hey, Sean. Great to be with you today. Thanks for having me on.
00:45 Well, it's an honor to have you on.
00:47 A iconic brand, somebody that has been working in the industry as long as you have,
00:54 that is now building the brand to new levels. 40-year celebration.
00:58 Can you start with answering this question for me,
01:01 which is where in the world is your favorite stadium, stage, or venue?
01:07 That's a pretty open-ended, broad-spectrum question.
01:10 I would probably say the South Side of Chicago, home of the White Sox.
01:15 Okay, South Side of Chicago. We're going to go to the home of the White Sox.
01:19 I'm going to convince Entrepreneur, talk to Toast, talk to Hooters.
01:23 We're going to put on an event for industry professionals.
01:27 What we love about this audience of this show is that there are people that play the game within the game.
01:33 It's one thing to be in the restaurant business and the hospitality business.
01:36 It's another thing to want to level up and nobody listens to a podcast,
01:40 watches a show, consumes content, unless they want to actually be better.
01:44 So we're going to go to White Sox Stadium. We're going to fill it with industry professionals.
01:50 I'm going to put you on the pitcher's mound and I'm going to ask Sal,
01:54 I need you to give the keynote of what will Hooters look like when we're celebrating the 50th anniversary.
02:01 So 10 years from now, what is it going to look like?
02:03 What will you have accomplished at Hooters America?
02:06 Still be the same amazing, iconic, worldwide brand, just with more dimensions and more units.
02:13 I say dimensions because we're on the cusp of some pretty exciting opportunities
02:17 that we're building in the licensing part around this brand.
02:20 You know, the brand name, the brand recognition is obviously worldwide, 100% unaided.
02:26 And with close to 400 units around the world, how do we grow that footprint?
02:31 And then how do we grow the opportunity for folks to further engage with the brand?
02:37 And that's many different things. That's merchandise, that's grocery stores,
02:41 that's consumption at home, delivery, as well as the old-fashioned way of dining at the restaurant.
02:47 I love it. I'm super excited for today's conversation because you have so many things that you do as a brand that we believe in,
02:56 whether you're a single unit restaurant or multi-unit or an international brand like yourself.
03:01 It's how do you diversify? How do you tell stories,
03:04 getting the hands of consumers in ways that aren't just bringing people to the brick and mortar store?
03:10 I'd love for you to share the beginning, your beginnings, your humble beginnings before you became CEO way back in the day.
03:18 Can you tell us your Hooters story?
03:21 Yeah, thanks. It is a very humbling experience.
03:25 When I think back, I was 19 years old. I was at the University of Florida getting a degree and I was home from college one weekend.
03:33 And I played high school football with a guy, his dad and my dad ran the high school booster club.
03:38 And he asked what I was doing for the summer. And I said, I was looking for a summer job.
03:42 And he said, OK, great. He said, do you have any food cooking experience?
03:46 I said, yeah. He goes, what'd you do? I said, my parents owned an Italian deli growing up in New Jersey.
03:50 I said, I can cook. He said, OK, great. He says, go out to this place. You'll meet my partner.
03:56 He's a guy from Chicago. You'll have a job. I was 19 years old, didn't know what Hooters was.
04:00 And I walked in and I see, you know, these beautiful girls in orange shorts.
04:05 I see a packed restaurant. I see chicken wings and pitchers of beer.
04:09 And I thought they're going to pay me. Should I be paying them?
04:13 I didn't know what the catch was, Sean. I was like, wait a minute. And yeah, that was my first, literally started washing dishes.
04:18 And then my next summer I got promoted to shaking wings and shucking oysters and then did an internship in their marketing office.
04:26 And then, you know, moved to Chicago upon graduation after school.
04:29 So, yeah, very, very blessed to what I say is have an opportunity as I go back and I mentor other people and speak at schools.
04:38 You'll have an opportunity. It's what you make of it. And I've been very humbled and blessed to have the opportunity.
04:43 Bring me back to the marketing internship. Yeah, great.
04:48 You don't even know the answers to these, but this is a good question. So it was supposed to be a charity bike ride.
04:53 You know, part of the Hooters philosophy is if you want to be a neighborhood restaurant, you participate in your neighborhood.
04:59 So we were doing a charity bike race across the state of Florida in the middle of it.
05:03 LA Gear dropped out of an offshore powerboat race and we had an offshore powerboat.
05:09 So the same guy who started Hooters was like, hey, pack your bags. We're going to Miami.
05:13 I said, well, what are we doing in Miami? He goes, we're going to sponsor this offshore powerboat.
05:16 I'm like, OK, Greg, where are we staying? He goes, we'll stay on the boat.
05:20 So next thing you know, again, I'm 19, I'm 20 now and we're on a 65 foot sea ray, all these offshore powerboats.
05:27 I do that for six weeks. I go back to school and they asked me to fill out this application about what I did to get college credit.
05:33 And all my other buddies, my other buddies had real jobs, right?
05:36 Who worked at AT&T, IBM, you know, Coca-Cola, Pepsi.
05:40 And I said, would you guys, well, I was on this boat for six weeks. We marketed and promoted this entire offshore boat race.
05:45 And the owner said he's not filling this out. But if you have any questions, here's his home number. You can call him.
05:51 So that was my internship. No way.
05:54 True story. That is amazing. Can you bring me into the philosophy, the Hooters brand philosophy in these immersion events?
06:02 Because it's definitely different. It's definitely unique. And I would love for you to give us a couple of stories like that.
06:10 Yeah. You know, as a marketing guy at heart, having grown up on the marketing side and I've been very blessed to have many mentors and places that I've learned over the years.
06:17 But one thing that I learned was, you know, people think about brands and my philosophy is it's not what you think about that brand.
06:25 It's how you feel when you interact with the brand. Right. So when you talk about those experiences, if you're dining in the restaurant, it's full engagement.
06:33 Right. If you're if you're at an offshore powerboat competition and it's sponsored by Hooters and you're at the Hooters tent, you know, you're engaging.
06:41 You have a connection to that brand deeper than just, you know, I ordered something from an app or I picked up something on the way home.
06:47 So, you know, it's a tremendous compliment, I always say, to the dining experience.
06:52 That's the main piece of our business. But, you know, the way the world has changed, technology has changed, the use occasion, we like to say in terms of how people can engage with our brand.
07:03 It really every time you think you have to figure it out, three more things open up a new opportunity for you.
07:08 What kind of challenges have you faced with the Hooters girls and what kind of opportunities do you see with your new I am campaign?
07:18 Yeah, great, great question. You know, the Hooters girl has been is now and will be the absolute essence of the business.
07:25 Right. The challenge is they're destined for so many great things.
07:31 Sometimes the hard thing is keeping them. Right. I mean, a lot of them move on.
07:34 A lot of them, first of all, it's their first job, right there. They're young. They're either in school, putting their way through school, living at home.
07:41 It's really their first opportunity for them to wait tables or be a bartender.
07:45 And when you look at the opportunity they have in the careers they've gone on to, the hard part has been keeping them.
07:52 Forty percent of our management staff is female. So some of them move on to great careers with us.
07:57 They move through the management ranks. Our chief people person actually started as a Hooters girl back in the day.
08:02 But then they go on to these other careers. And you mentioned the I am campaign.
08:06 And we've really tried to put a focus on celebrating the empowerment of women.
08:12 Right. If you think about the things that they've accomplished, right.
08:16 They're they're doctors, they're pediatricians, they're lawyers. They've gone on to own their own businesses.
08:22 They're the deputy cybersecurity person in charge of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
08:27 I mean, the careers are amazing, but it's almost the best kept secret.
08:31 Right. People don't realize that you ask them, oh, I got my first job was Hooters.
08:34 It gave me confidence, gave me the ability to talk to people.
08:38 So the opportunity then with that tuition reimbursement, you know, they complete education.
08:43 They're caring for family members. They're taking care of a sick parent.
08:46 I mean, the stories are endless with the half a million alumni Hooter girls that we have around the world.
08:53 That's amazing. Half a million. And I think, you know, one of the purposes that we do this show is we talk about storytelling.
09:00 Storytelling happens in real life. The original creators are entrepreneurs,
09:04 people that actually invested and got some crazy idea to open up a Hooters back in 1983 and open,
09:11 you know, incorporate on on April Fool's Day because they think it's a joke.
09:15 But when you look at where we are now with smartphones and with the Internet at our fingertips and the ability to share the stories of the things that happen in our community,
09:26 you think of the reach that Hooters has as a global brand.
09:30 But then you go to Facebook and you have two point four million followers, Instagram, five, almost five hundred thousand, TikTok, seven hundred thousand X, one hundred and fifty YouTube, sixty thousand.
09:40 When you look at that collective content of the things that you can do for the IAM campaign, it becomes this much bigger reach for the brand.
09:49 When you look at social storytelling for the brand, what lens do you guys look at it?
09:55 You know, it's interesting, obviously, I think those numbers you reference and when we look at it at the lens of how many people we're touching, right, how do we get them to engage?
10:03 And that's really the I think, you know, I think any brand right in irrespective of the restaurant industry, you want that brand engagement.
10:10 If you look at your phone today, there's probably 10 apps that are on your front page, right?
10:15 That's your beach front real estate, right? How do you get that space?
10:19 How do you get that constant communication? You know, the whole advent of this loyalty app, that's a real we're in the early, early innings on that.
10:28 But we have a huge push and initiative around that.
10:31 And there's so many pieces of that hub and spoke, so to speak, the spoke of I can order food, right?
10:37 I can maybe play a game. I could buy tickets or something.
10:41 I could, you know, if I can't connect to a real story, I'm following somebody.
10:47 Oh, wait, there's a store that I go to. I make that my favorite store.
10:49 What's what's coming out of that? What are the events calendar?
10:52 So there's so many things that I think we're in such the early is ending on that.
10:56 But I think it toggles back to your first question is, you know, 10 more years from now in the next decade.
11:01 How do we grow that exponentially in terms of that user base to continue to build the content to interact and engage with the consumer?
11:09 We have a brand new show called Toast Family Style.
11:13 It is on YouTube. It is a travel show where we go and find the best operators on the Toast platform and share the secrets to their success on location.
11:23 Check it out. Our first episode was with Novo Brazil at a Chula Vista, California.
11:29 They have a brewery location there and consumer packaged goods.
11:32 They've added additional revenue streams, but we also feature Toast's new app.
11:37 Go to the App Store right now and download the app.
11:41 It is the Toast Now app. It will give you the power of your restaurants, sales, your forecast, your labor costs, allow you to turn on and off third party delivery.
11:52 It is mind blowing how cool this app is.
11:55 It has been the most requested thing of Toast. Leadership built it with so many of you that listen to this show.
12:02 So many of the Toast customer advisory boards. I was there in lots of those meetings.
12:07 It is one of the coolest things that I have seen rolled out.
12:10 I can't wait for you, the listener, to download the app.
12:12 Give us your feedback. Make your Toast app unboxing video.
12:17 Check out Toast family style and also check out the Toast Now app today.
12:22 So when we first opened in 2008, we picked a terrible location, terrible time to open up a restaurant.
12:28 I didn't even want to be in the restaurant business, but the drive was, to be honest, really sports entertainment.
12:34 I love the idea of owning a sports bar, bringing great food to the community.
12:38 But, you know, having a family friendly atmosphere.
12:41 And I remember having early conversations with my attorney and all the people that told me I was crazy.
12:46 But the idea back in 2008 was.
12:51 Wouldn't it be amazing if at some point we could talk about legalized gambling in the way that it works in Vegas?
12:59 Wouldn't it be amazing? And now here we go.
13:02 And we sit in 2023 and we have DraftKings and we have all these incredible things that have happened for sports gambling.
13:09 Can you tell us about the lens of where we are in 2023 and this 10 year look of what will Hooters look like when we're talking about legalized gambling?
13:18 Yeah, good point. I mean, I say we are a tremendous complement to the sporting industry, right?
13:24 Because, you know, hey, if you want to come to Hooters again and get back to the use occasion, you come in for lunch, come in for dinner, you come in for a meeting.
13:30 Hey, you get promoted, you go to Hooters and you pound beers, right? You get fired.
13:33 You still go to Hooters and you pound beers, right? So because of that.
13:36 So when I look at the sports segment, because we've always been such a complement to it,
13:42 also meaning that, you know, sports bars are empty for Tuesday lunch. We're busy, right? Unless there's a big event on.
13:47 So, you know, as the DraftKings and those guys have come on, more and more states have legalized gambling.
13:52 Fortunately, with our footprint, you know, gives us the ability to participate in that, you know, not on the gambling side, but hey, we're the place to be, right?
14:00 We've dedicated televisions that have got odds up that you can bet in real time.
14:05 You can be on your phone. You can be on your app.
14:08 You know, we call it the dwell time.
14:10 You can increase your dwell time while you're at Hooters going, hey, you know, the next 20 minutes, all bets pay double through DraftKings.
14:16 Well, Sean's got another pitcher of beer.
14:19 We're going to stick around.
14:20 So I don't think they know what the full potential is yet.
14:24 I know as more and more states come online, I think there'll be more and more participation for that.
14:29 I just think we're poised and set up for a nice backdrop with a good foundation of being in that space, having the venue to be able to complement the gaming industry.
14:39 I think that's what's really interesting is that there's so many large online businesses that are very strong brands.
14:47 When you think of Uber Eats and you think of DraftKings, but then you think of the ecosystem of where's the in-person customer.
14:54 Well, the in-person customers in places like Hooters, like restaurants, like hotels, like casinos, and they need to get in front of those customers because customers we like to get fans like there.
15:06 You'll never be able to replace that stadium experience and that sports bar experience because we all gather together and we're all cheering for the same thing.
15:14 They want to get in front of that demographic.
15:16 When you look at brand partnerships, especially because Hooters is such an iconic brand, 40 years now, international locations, how are those conversations going?
15:27 Because I'm sure they're very exciting.
15:30 They are, right? And we have to be very pragmatic about it.
15:33 You know, we did the same thing very early on when the delivery service providers came on.
15:38 Right. We didn't we didn't hitch our wagon to just one star.
15:41 Right. I mean, at the end of the day, I think the same thing is happening because it's continuing to evolve.
15:45 Right. I think you're going to see more and more mergers and acquisitions.
15:49 You're going to see more consolidation on certain fronts.
15:52 I mean, we've been all over the board in terms of which particular partner to partner with.
15:57 And we work with them all because we think that's where the opportunity is.
16:00 We don't want to limit ourselves. And equally, you know, they're excited to work with us because of our footprint and the amount of units.
16:07 When you look, tell us about the virtual kitchens, the licensing side.
16:12 Yeah, it's pretty interesting.
16:13 Before COVID hit, we already had deep partnerships with the Uber Eats and the Grubhubs and the DoorDashes and those folks.
16:19 When COVID came along, it really just put an accelerant on that.
16:23 Right. If you tried to get in the delivery business, you were already a day late and a dollar short.
16:29 We already had that. We had the to-go packaging. We had the bags.
16:33 We had the muscle memory, the tablets, the direct order pieces.
16:37 We were already lined up. And then we actually created before the pandemic, even our own brands.
16:42 Right. I mean, we did some partnerships with Uber around Hootie's Burger Bar, right.
16:46 And Hootie's Bait and Tackle. You know, we sponsor Chase Elliott on the NASCAR circuit.
16:51 And we did Chase's Chicken Tenders. Right. So they come out of our restaurant.
16:55 Yeah, they show up in our bag. They're cooked in our kitchens.
16:58 And then you have the ability, of course, to add on wings and curly fries to come with all those orders.
17:02 So that's been a nice, again, spoke on the wheel for us.
17:06 So, yeah, I referenced earlier the use occasion.
17:09 Hey, if you're on the go and you're busy and you don't have time, put your order in, pick it up, go through our loyalty app.
17:14 Or I've got the time. Well, then I'm going to go for the dine in experience.
17:17 So it's really been a nice, again, compliment to our business in terms of how the consumer wants to engage with us.
17:23 How is the structure look for expansion on the franchisee side?
17:30 Good. You know, it's with our 40th anniversary, we actually just signed two new domestic franchisees.
17:36 We've got two more in the hopper right behind him.
17:38 So we've got a nice incentive in place, you know, 40 weeks of no royalties as a reward for signing on board.
17:45 But because the brand is legendary and iconic and has been time tested,
17:49 just now we're putting that back in the forefront in terms of franchising, refocusing on the growth side, coming out of COVID.
17:56 So it's been a good opportunity. We've also seen a lot of interest internationally, right, that the brand transcends around the globe.
18:05 Again, you could be sitting in another part of the world. Whoa, who knows what that is.
18:10 So those opportunities now have opened up and we've actually engaged a pretty vast broker network around the globe is going to help facilitate some of that.
18:18 So we're very bullish. We're very optimistic that we know what the brand is.
18:22 It's iconic. And the fact that people know what it is around the globe,
18:25 we think is going to be very helpful as opposed to trying to convince somebody what is the brand and then do you want to invest in it?
18:33 When you look at the pageant and the idea of putting on an event because you guys do so many different types of events and now you have this international appeal.
18:44 How do you look at investment into events, not just domestically, but also internationally?
18:50 Yeah, you know, the pageant was a good representation. We had Hooter girls from around the world,
18:55 you know, come to Las Vegas for the 40th anniversary to participate in that.
19:00 Right. And cash prizes and the opportunities and the stories that they share in the bomb that they have.
19:05 So, you know, what can we do then around the globe to continue that?
19:09 Right. How do we spread our best practices that we do here in the States that now franchisees are having their own local pageants, right?
19:16 They're sponsoring events in their neighborhoods. So the more we communicate, the more we educate,
19:22 the more that franchisee can share in the success and use the experiences over the past 40 years to help bring it to their market.
19:30 What's the difference between what you did as the chief strategy officer versus the CEO?
19:37 How much time we have here today? As much time as you need.
19:41 Thanks, brother. Yeah, you know, the strategy officer was was exactly that.
19:47 Right. You know, what is the what is the overall vision down the road?
19:51 Where do we want to be? Not today, not tomorrow, but further down on the horizon.
19:58 You know, the transition, the CEO for me was, first of all, humbling and super exciting after all the years and having had so many positions within the organization over the year.
20:08 But but as you know, at the CEO level, you know, one, the buck stops with me.
20:12 Right. Two, how do I build and continue to lead a culture?
20:18 And that's really what it comes down to is the culture. Right. People say to me, you're in the you're in the food business.
20:24 Not really. You're in the bar business. We're not in the bar biz. What do you do?
20:28 I said, we're in the people business. And they said, oh, you like staffing and recruiting your headhunter.
20:32 I said, no, no. I see. Externally, we take care of our guests every day.
20:36 And those are people, you know, internally. It's the folks that make this engine run.
20:41 And that's people. Right. So when we talk about having a meeting like this and we're engaging in this podcast,
20:47 there's people on our side taking care of people that come in. That's where the rubber hits the road.
20:51 I joke and say we don't make our money in the office.
20:54 You know, we make our money with the guest experience in the neighborhoods that we serve.
20:57 That's really, I think, the biggest challenge.
21:01 And of course, at my level, you know, looking across the spectrum, you know,
21:05 I've got eight direct reports, eight different departments and a myriad of challenges that go on beneath that.
21:10 We're in 26 different countries. We've got franchisees that I engage with.
21:14 We've got vendor partners that we work with. So the nice thing is no two days are the same.
21:20 And it's spin the wheel as to what's going to be the challenge of the day.
21:24 But we have to keep growing the business because volume cures all ills.
21:29 Do you remember the day that you found out? I know exactly where I was sitting.
21:36 930 at night. I was sitting in my home in Chicago in my office,
21:39 watching something on television and the phone rang and it was the previous CEO saying,
21:44 it's that time that I told you would come. And I said, oh, what's that?
21:48 He goes, you're going to get a call from some board members here.
21:51 I'll be stepping aside and it'll be your turn. So I can I can tell you exactly where I was exactly that moment.
21:57 I can count that the day the day my wife and I got married the day my children were born,
22:02 the day my dad passed and the day I got that role.
22:05 When you got that role, what was the conversation like with your wife?
22:11 I don't know. Went on till two in the morning. She decided to go to sleep.
22:14 So she didn't know. And I grabbed a cup of coffee and said, I'm jumping a flight,
22:20 but I'll catch you up later. Right. But no, it was exciting.
22:23 It's I was offered several opportunities over the years,
22:26 very candidly and within Hooters and without Hooters, but even within Hooters and I had turned them down.
22:32 And the reason I turned them down was, you know, I'm a dad first and it just wasn't the right timing for my family.
22:38 And I always said they come first. I never heard a guy ever say, I wish I had another business meeting.
22:42 Right. So came back a second time. Never thought they'd come back a third time.
22:47 And on the third time, not to bore you, but I'll never forget.
22:50 We were sitting on vacation in Italy and I said to the family, I said, hey, look, this came around a third time.
22:56 You know, what do you think if anybody says, no, I'm not going to do it.
22:59 And my daughter said, she goes, hey, you've done everything for us your entire life.
23:03 We're going off to college. It's time you do something for yourself.
23:06 And I go, geez, I guess I'm taking the job. Right. So, yeah, it was a unique opportunity.
23:11 And one that is hard to describe when I go back and talk to kids in colleges.
23:17 How did you get your job? It certainly makes for an interesting conversation in a class setting.
23:24 Well, I appreciate you sharing it, and it's not a waste of my time at all or our audience's time,
23:28 because in the hospitality business, usually you don't hear those stories.
23:33 Most people see someone in your position at CEO and think that you weren't a dad first.
23:39 I mean, what does it mean to be a dad first? Yeah, I mean, my family is everything.
23:45 I was raised that way. I had two wonderful parents.
23:48 I feel very blessed and humbled. So that's all I knew.
23:52 And I knew I looked around. I knew a lot of guys. I knew I had a lot of money.
23:56 But they were trying to get a relationship with their kids or their family and things didn't work out.
24:01 And that's that was very foreign to me. So, you know, I work like everybody else, super hard.
24:07 But I also cooked and coached and carpooled and did all the things that a responsible, engaged dad should do in my mind.
24:15 So I am very blessed that I had the best of both. I had the opportunity to be able to be there for my family.
24:20 And then by the same token, have the opportunity to lead a brand that I've grown up with in my entire life.
24:26 It's sort of the icing on the cake for me. So, you know, for some reason,
24:30 God gave me the opportunity and for some reason God brought me on this journey.
24:34 I don't think he's done with me yet. I don't know what's yet to come. But I've been very, very fortunate along the way.
24:41 When you think of all the mentors that you've had to get you to where you are,
24:44 are there any stories or lessons that stick out of something that you pass on to other people in your executive team and to people that you lead?
24:54 Yes, that's a really good question, Sean. I would say it's a it's like a golf bag, right?
25:01 You got different clubs in the bag. I've got two or three mentors that I can think of over the years, you know, starting with my dad.
25:09 And then, of course, you know, a couple of folks at Hooters and another guy that I know,
25:13 there's different people for different settings. Right. And I think the same thing happens in my own life.
25:18 Hey, you got a tough time. Well, let me reach in the club and use the bag and use this club that maybe this mentor coached or guided on.
25:26 Yeah, I never thought I'd be a big social media follower, but I follow certain people that all of a sudden those things just sort of connect or at the right time.
25:34 I keep different notes around my desk here that you look for inspiration. It comes in different places.
25:38 I had two conversations today in my office with people that are going through something difficult.
25:43 And I just feel very blessed that I've had those mentors, as you referenced, and learning points that I can say, hey, this may work for you.
25:51 This may not. But, you know, first of all, nobody's going to die today. Let's get that off the table now.
25:56 This, too, shall pass. But here's some of the tools we can look at are things you could possibly consider to help get you through the point where you are today.
26:04 When you think of your position as a public facing CEO and you said now you're doing those social media things,
26:10 is there going to be a point where you actually start producing content of your leadership of what you're doing?
26:19 So our learning and development team is, I say, world class here, and they've actually put together now probably I say we've done six weeks worth of internal building.
26:31 Intentional leaders is what we've titled it. Podcast workshops with myself and one of them so that we can share with the field.
26:39 We're in the process of turning that over and maybe opening that up to the outside world.
26:44 But I think internally, any time that I hopefully can connect with one person in the organization to do one thing different, that's a win.
26:53 Right. I mean, and they say one of the many definitions of leadership is, you know, getting folks to do what needs to be done.
27:00 Not because you tell them, but because they want to do it. And what does that look like?
27:04 How can I inspire them to follow in the ways? And I have a couple of big things that I touch on, but I'm a big, big fan around the personal brand.
27:14 And I can spend a lot of time talking about personal brands. We did a whole podcast on just that.
27:20 On the personal brand side, is that something that you plan on hopefully sharing more?
27:27 I do. You're going to start a LinkedIn content and TikTok content and Instagram content.
27:36 I'm selling chicken wings and beer right now for my day job, but you never know.
27:41 You can you can sell those and have your team get that clipped up.
27:46 The only reason I say that is that I know that you wouldn't be in the position that you're in and just having the conversation with you if you didn't have lessons and stories that you can share with the world.
27:55 And we've never had these tools at our fingertips.
27:59 And, you know, you already have an incredible team that puts out incredible content.
28:03 And I just hope that at some point we're going to look back and be able to see more stories and more lessons and not from a selfish perspective, but from a selfless perspective.
28:14 Yeah, you're exactly one of the things I've tried to teach my children in early age is the word humility.
28:19 And it's not easy sometimes for me to talk about myself because it's just not my general wheelhouse.
28:25 However, in the context of for the good of the business, talking about things I can share, teach, coach, educate.
28:32 And if somebody picks up one thing out of one podcast, all the time is worth it. Right.
28:37 So, I don't know. Ask me when we do this for the 50th year of Hooters and we'll see.
28:41 You got a deal. My grandfather, he taught me to stay curious, to get involved and to ask for help.
28:48 And I think the hardest lesson was learning how to ask for help.
28:53 And someone in your position, have you always been good at asking for help or is it a strength or is it a weakness?
29:00 I think it's a strength. I seek counsel from people that I think are way smarter than me.
29:05 Part of my leadership style here in my office with everybody, especially my C-suite, is, you know, 100 percent transparency.
29:13 We have to have titles for the sake of an org chart, but we're really all on the same team. Right.
29:18 I'm only as good as my weakest link and vice versa. So, sometimes I'll seek counsel from them.
29:23 Hey, what do you think of this? How can you help on this? Or, hey, have you ever thought about that?
29:27 And I think that has really accelerated the success of our business because people don't work in silos.
29:32 People have the ability to cross communicate. People can walk down to somebody else's office and ask for help and make a mistake.
29:39 I make 10 before noon all day. If you're not making mistakes, you're not trying hard enough.
29:43 Nobody's going to get fired. Let's put it on the record right now. No one will get fired for making a mistake.
29:48 That's where we learn. So, and some people look at me like, all right, what's the catch?
29:54 There's no catch. I mean, we just have to have a better mousetrap and execute better day in and day out.
30:00 That's where we win. There's a lot. A lot of people will ask you what keeps you up at night.
30:05 I don't care what keeps you up at night. I care about what pulls you out of bed in the morning.
30:09 What pulls you out of bed in the morning? Conquer the next day. I mean, I literally wake up.
30:14 I go by the grace of God, you're giving me another day here today. All right, let's get after it.
30:18 And, you know, don't know what the day is going to bring. I mean, I go in with the same outstanding positive attitude.
30:24 But one guy in my office says there could be a meteor coming right at the building.
30:28 And you probably say, it's a pretty good chance it might miss us. Right.
30:31 But I think it's that positive attitude that comes in. One, it's contagious.
30:36 And two, there's going to be ups and downs all day. But it's that unknown that. All right.
30:41 What am I going to solve today? I reference my athletic days.
30:45 I was a quarterback, you know, and you come to the line and all of a sudden you think you're running this play.
30:50 You see something totally different. Well, that's not going to work out.
30:53 Time to audible. And I think that's the same thing we do in business.
30:57 What advice would you have to restaurants that are listening to this show when you think of diversifying your income streams?
31:05 Good question. Diversify within your strengths. Right.
31:10 I'll give you a specific example. We're looking at finally 40 years later, getting deeper into the grocery store category.
31:18 And somebody be listening to this going, you know, that guy's real smart. I took him 40 years to figure that out. Right.
31:24 And I already said I'm not that bright. But you walk into a restaurant, a grocery store and you see all these brands.
31:30 Right. Same thing is happening for us. We're just now getting the leverage to be able to put those products in.
31:36 But it's stuff that we know is going to be not too far off. Tremendous credit to people before us. Right.
31:43 We had Hooters Airline. We had a Hooters casino. You know, those work for a long time.
31:48 Then they didn't work. Right. So you have to continue to try things, but not deviate too far from what your main core, you know, good to great.
31:56 You're your hedgehog is right. But at the end of the day, what's your core vein?
31:59 We're going to get oil out of those wells and you try to pump more. But don't get too far outside of your lane.
32:06 I appreciate you bringing up the airline and the casino. I mean, those are perfect examples.
32:11 Right. Of of having the having the courage to do what other people aren't willing to do.
32:17 But then taking the lessons of it didn't work. Now, how do we pivot and how are you going to work?
32:23 What's the approach for grocery? Same idea. Right. Well, we've done some focus groups and some research.
32:29 I mean, the intent to purchase by the consumer, again, because of the name is off the chart. Right.
32:35 We have we have brand equity. Right. Anything that we try, people are going to know what it is.
32:40 And in this particular case, the brand equity is not trying to do something too far different.
32:44 It's putting a food product out. Right. So already the consumer should know there's going to least have the highest propensity of trial levels ago.
32:53 Oh, God, Hooters, I can get that. I'll take it. I'll bring it home.
32:56 Now, working through which items, which outlets with grocery stores, things like that will be the next piece.
33:01 And then how do we cross promote? Hey, you come into the restaurant. Great. Here's your coupon. Take that at home. Vice versa.
33:08 I mean, our alcohol vendor partners, I mean, can't think of a better thing to go to the grocery store, pick up your wings, grab your hot sauce, get your blue cheese and a case of your favorite beer.
33:18 Now you've got your own party. So it's very synergistic.
33:23 It's great. Every single week on Wednesday and on Friday on the social audio app Clubhouse, we meet with you, the listener, the viewer of this show.
33:32 It's a chance for you to get on stage. Tell us about your restaurant. Tell us if you're in sales, if you're in marketing, if you're a content creator.
33:37 If you're in technology, it's a great place. It's a micro community, but we invite you to be on there.
33:43 If you're listening to this, please join us. We also do a social shout out this week goes to Chris Roberts, who is my family attorney, my business attorney.
33:53 He is the one that we had those crazy conversations back in the day of what what sports bars would look like into the future.
34:00 And the fact that I'm here interviewing you on this show, Sal, it's a big win for for the big, big dreamers out there.
34:09 You don't listen to a show like this unless you're a big dreamer. Sal, please give me someone within your organization.
34:15 I know it's hard to pick one person, but this is going to be on Entrepreneur. It's a chance for you to give them a social shout out.
34:22 Is there someone that's gone above and beyond recently that you'd like to recognize?
34:29 I feel like I'm at the Academy Awards.
34:32 You have to pick your favorite child.
34:35 OK, great, Sean. Here's what I say. I say you're the same, right?
34:40 All my children are the same. Yeah. Which is your favorite? Which is out of all the Hooters locations, which one's your favorite?
34:47 Well, you know, I'm near and dear to the original, right?
34:50 There you go.
34:52 How about that for diplomacy?
34:54 Right. Yeah. No, give give me give me one human, a human in the organization that deserves a shout out.
35:00 Yeah. If I had to pick one human. Well, there are many, but I will probably pick up because I'm biased to the marketing side.
35:08 Our chief marketing officer, Bruce Scala, it is awfully difficult being on the forefront of a company and a content provider where everyone is a Monday morning quarterback and has an opinion.
35:27 Right. And as a marketeer. And look, this is a marketing driven concept.
35:31 I grew up with this one of our original founders, you know, grew up on the marketing side.
35:35 Was very blessed. Make no mistakes. This is it. And the idea is when they work, you know, everyone else takes the credit.
35:43 Yeah. And when they don't work, man, he's the dumbest marketing guy in the world. Right.
35:47 I've worn that hat. I've taken bullets. I know. I know what that's like to have the inbound bogeys at you.
35:54 So the fact that he is resent the relentless and resilient, which resilience my favorite word in the dictionary, my hats off.
36:03 And then I want to thank my mom, the other people. OK, so then I take two.
36:08 I did. Well, I appreciate that. And the other real quickly, I'd love to get inside of your smartphone storytelling.
36:16 So one of the things that we believe is that if a barbecue brand like us can become a media company, anybody that's listening to the show, we have the power to tell a story on the Internet.
36:26 I need to know, are you an iPhone or an Android user?
36:29 I am an iPhone. Which version? OK. In the spirit of transparency, I just got hacked.
36:37 So I just got the brand new latest one today. So. Oh, really? True story. On my father's grave.
36:43 Yeah. This is the 14. I got to look it up. The 14 max, I think.
36:47 Whatever it is, I literally before I got on this show. There you go. Well, congratulations.
36:52 Welcome. Welcome for your new iPhone. Do you prefer emails or texts?
36:57 Depends on the person. Depends on the person. Do you prefer text or phone calls?
37:02 Depends on the person. How many emails do you get a day?
37:07 Eight hundred. How many are you excited about reading?
37:12 My wife text me, so that doesn't count. OK, I would say a good I'd say a good 25 percent of them.
37:20 A lot of it is just information to be kept in the loop. But a lot of it is engagement that I can participate in.
37:25 And are you an inbox zero or do you keep emails on your phone?
37:30 Pack rat. What's that? A pack rat. I save them. Yeah. I'm not an email zero guy.
37:35 No. OK. What's your favorite app on your phone?
37:40 My favorite app on my phone? Well, considering they're all deleted now and I don't have any.
37:46 That's my first one I get to pick my favorite app. I commute a lot. So Delta Airlines.
37:52 Delta Airlines. Do you listen to music on your phone? I do.
37:57 Through Spotify. Through Spotify. Perfect. And what is your least favorite app on your phone?
38:03 But you have to have. Some days my work email.
38:11 Your work email. Well, that's fantastic, Sal. I appreciate the time.
38:15 What's the best way for people to learn more about Hooters expansion Hooters follow on social?
38:22 We're going to put all the links into the show notes. Obviously, it's pretty easy to find.
38:26 Jump in all the links. Jump on. Get our loyalty app. Get on the Hooters dot com.
38:31 Hooters franchising. It's all right there. You shop right from your home.
38:36 I appreciate that. And if you guys want to connect with me, it's at Sean P.
38:40 Walsh F. S. H. A. W. N. P. W. A. L. C. H. E. F. We appreciate you listening to this show.
38:46 We appreciate you watching this show. Sal, thank you for your leadership.
38:51 Thank you for taking the time to share your secrets with our audience. We really appreciate it.
38:56 This is great. Wonderful time. Love the show. Appreciate you.
39:00 Appreciate the content. And really, thanks for having me on today. It was fun.
39:03 And if you ever make it out to San Diego, come by for come by for some barbecue.
39:07 I mean, just a reminder, you the listener, you the viewer are the most important person that consumes this content.
39:15 The only way for us to grow this show is for you to share it with a fellow friend in the restaurant business.
39:21 Help us grow the show by subscribing and always reach out to me. I want to hear your story.
39:27 I want to learn more about your restaurant, whether you're on toast, whether you're looking to get on toast.
39:32 We appreciate you supporting this show and we can't wait to see the content that you're creating and to learn about the impact that you are making in your communities.
39:41 Stay curious, get involved and don't be afraid to ask for help.
39:44 (upbeat music)