Despite not having any prior restaurant experience, Loycent Gordon breathed new life into Neir’s Tavern, a historic Queens landmark made famous in the movie Goodfellas. Dubbed “The most famous bar you’ve never heard of” by PBS, the restaurant and bar is on its way to a 200 year anniversary.
Watch now to learn about entering the restaurant business, telling the story of your business, and taking a leap of faith.
Watch now to learn about entering the restaurant business, telling the story of your business, and taking a leap of faith.
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00:00But they had a kitchen?
00:01No, no, no.
00:02It's just like a closet.
00:03So I had this guy at first that would.
00:06I don't know if I could say it's cook at home and bring it there.
00:09Yeah, it's a long time.
00:10We're legit now.
00:11Well, we're legit now.
00:14This is a show for entrepreneur.
00:15This is how this is the real entrepreneur.
00:23Welcome to Restaurant Influencers presented by Entrepreneur.
00:26I am your host, Sean Walsh.
00:28This is a Cali BBQ Media production in life, in the restaurant business,
00:34and in the new creator economy.
00:36We learn through lessons and stories.
00:38I have a special guest, a special friend who I have admired from afar.
00:43We have never met in real life, but I knew one day I would have him on the show
00:47to share his incredible story, what this man does for his community, what he's
00:52done for his restaurant, his bar, his tavern.
00:55I have Loisant Gordon, who is the founder.
00:59Well, founder, CEO of Nair's Tavern.
01:03You can find him at Loisant.
01:05I don't know how he got just his first name on Instagram, but it's at Loisant.
01:10And you can find him at Nair's Tavern.
01:13Loisant, welcome to the show.
01:15Thank you. Thank you, Sean.
01:17It's funny you say at Loisant.
01:19That's when I truly understood the value of my name as a kid.
01:23I was like, what is this darn name, Loisant?
01:26Like, what the heck?
01:26Why can't I be named Sean or Chuck or something?
01:29Right. Yeah.
01:31And then when I got Loisant at Gmail.com, Loisant.com, like at Loisant,
01:37I'm like, you know what?
01:38I love this name.
01:39I love this name.
01:42That's amazing.
01:43Well, welcome to the show.
01:44Thank you for being here.
01:45We're grateful to Toast, our primary technology partner,
01:48for giving us the opportunity, giving us the stage.
01:52They power our barbecue restaurants here in San Diego.
01:55But more importantly, they've allowed us to create this show.
01:58We've been doing the show for three years now.
02:00And like I said, I've been wanting to get you on.
02:03I'm so grateful that you're here to share your story.
02:06Let's start with our favorite random question, which is where in the world
02:09is your favorite stadium, stage or venue?
02:15I you know, it's it's two parts.
02:19I'm going to say City Fields, the Mets,
02:23although I'm not the crazy fanatical baseball fan,
02:26but there's something about going out there on a beautiful day.
02:30And it's just the American pastime as a Jamaican.
02:34I feel like I'm connecting back to the country that gave me so much.
02:38So I just I love that baseball ideology.
02:42And so because I'm from Queens, New York,
02:45you know, grew up here after leaving the island of Jamaica.
02:49I really connect with the whole baseball part pastime.
02:53And so the Mets are right here in Queens.
02:55So City Field, it is.
02:57And then the other side of it is I'm a huge Nick fan,
03:00although I went dormant for a while because my heart couldn't take it.
03:04But I'm back, baby.
03:06MSG, I've only been there once.
03:10But that's the other part of it that I know is favorite.
03:14But it's my favorite to actually be a regular at.
03:18Well, we're going to go to City Field.
03:19We've gone to MSG on the show a couple of times.
03:21I don't believe we've been to City Field.
03:23So we're going to go to City Field.
03:25We're going to rent out the entire stadium.
03:27I'm sure it's 50,000, 60,000 fans will fit in there.
03:31But we're going to get people that play the game within the game.
03:33So storytellers, professional chefs, professional restauranteurs,
03:38entrepreneurs, people that want to level up their business.
03:41I'm going to put you on pitcher's mound.
03:44I must say, Loisen, it's time for your TEDx hospitality talk.
03:48Tell me. Tell me the Nair's story.
03:51Oh, wow.
03:53Near specifically,
03:56you know, it's a tavern that was on its last leg
04:01that I accidentally bumped into.
04:05And my friend, actually, it's funny because
04:10I never wanted to be a restaurant owner.
04:13I wanted I was I was going to be a DJ, man.
04:15Like that. That was the thing.
04:16I was just spinning records to Techniques 1200s and, you know, DJing,
04:21you know, parties.
04:22And that's how I paid my way through college because we didn't have much money.
04:26So that was like the path that I was taking.
04:29And a guy found me while I was working at Radio Shack,
04:32if anybody remember Radio Shack,
04:35because I you know, and he was a studio owner.
04:38And he's like, I love DJs because they could help me
04:41pick the next hot record.
04:43And it just so happened when I went to his studio, he owned this building.
04:47And in this building was this tavern.
04:50And I never really went there.
04:52I was just went straight to the studio, man.
04:54I have no time for that.
04:55And he kept complaining how they just couldn't pay the rent.
04:59And I'm like, all right, man, I just want to be a DJ, man.
05:01You know, like what's going on?
05:03And after a little while, complain, I said, let me go check it out.
05:06And I went next door and I became like a regular.
05:09And it was just so depressing for me.
05:13It just it hit something really hit
05:17because it was almost like that abandoned grandfather
05:20that no one visit anymore.
05:22And I don't know why that kind of just really hit me hard.
05:27And I sort of understood why it did hit me because of just how I came
05:31to this country and come into this country and go into fourth grade
05:36and not being able to read or write and, you know,
05:39just trying to navigate my way around.
05:42And I just kind of felt left out.
05:44And for some reason that those two connected.
05:47And I just after a little while, I'm complaining and I just fell in love with it.
05:51And I was like, all these local businesses are closing.
05:53You know, these are like pillars of community.
05:55Why are we letting them go?
05:57And, you know, then he was like, in two weeks, you know, it's going to close.
06:00And then he's like in a week.
06:02And then it was like in three days.
06:03And I'm like, I just jumped in and said, OK, not this one.
06:09Like, I'm going to help.
06:11And essentially, you know, one of the most famous,
06:15you know, mob movies all the time, Goodfellas film there.
06:17And so I made him an offer that he couldn't refuse.
06:21And literally we said, OK, let's do it.
06:24And so I jumped in and started to figure out how to run a bar and restaurant.
06:28And then eventually found out that not only was a historic bar,
06:32it's one of the oldest in the country.
06:34And Goodfellas, 14 percent of Goodfellas was filmed there.
06:37And, you know, it's the oldest in New York City, in Queens, where we're located.
06:42And so much history.
06:43One of the former presidents used to be there, Grover Cleveland back in the 1800s.
06:48I mean, just so much stuff.
06:50And I'm like, what if this silly Jamaican man
06:53can save one of America's oldest tavern?
06:56Like, just what if, you know?
06:58And so that's where I started to learn, OK, how do you run a bar and restaurant?
07:02And then the story just goes on and on.
07:06And here I am.
07:07I mean, I'm fast tracking because a long story, but that's the overarching.
07:12And I'm trying to bring it to the 200th anniversary
07:16in 2029 as part of my mission,
07:19because I realize this is bigger than burgers and beer.
07:23When you took over, do you remember that first day?
07:27Well, the first day, it was like a it was like an easy kind of thing.
07:31I was going there and going there.
07:32But the first official official day, we went to the guy.
07:37So essentially what happens, like we took over.
07:40People would say, did you buy the bill?
07:41I'm like, not really.
07:43What ended up happening was they knew it was coming.
07:47There was a bodega that's going to actually owner that's going to take it over
07:51and actually sign a lease and turn a bodega.
07:53So they knew things was coming.
07:55And so when the first day was, I went to the guy's house
08:00because there was one guy there that was kind of running the show kind of a thing.
08:04He was working seven days a week.
08:05And I went to his house and we found it in Whitestone, Queens.
08:10And we knocked on the door.
08:11No one was answering because we needed the key, right?
08:14To literally let ourselves in and to like all the things that needed to get access.
08:20And we went in the basement.
08:22And it was like, yeah, that's it, man.
08:23You know, just give the key and, you know, we'll be on our way.
08:26You don't have to owe the six months rent.
08:28And and eventually we took it and it went back to the tavern.
08:32And that was like like that night went back.
08:36And that was officially us taking over.
08:39And it was just kind of weird.
08:41The place, unfortunately, was just, you know, the old beer thing.
08:45You know, it was like, you know, it was like, you know,
08:48the place, unfortunately, was just, you know, the old beer smell
08:52because it has been cleaned and maintained in a while.
08:55Like, again, it was like a grandfather that people neglected
08:59and the restoration process began.
09:02Do you remember how did you learn?
09:05Like, what did you do to learn besides getting your hands dirty?
09:10So, OK, it was I don't even know if I want to say this.
09:15I definitely say it was really bad.
09:18So first of all, they didn't have food.
09:19So I had to come up with a food program.
09:21All right. Take it from a guy that didn't go to CIA or something.
09:25Right. The Institute of American.
09:27But they had a kitchen.
09:28No, no, no. It was just like a closet.
09:30So I literally had to figure stuff out.
09:33And I had this guy at first that would
09:37I don't know if I could say it's cook it home and bring it there.
09:40Yeah, it's a long time. We're legit now.
09:43We're legit now.
09:44We actually get the, you know, but this is a show for entrepreneur.
09:47This is how this is the real entrepreneur.
09:50All right. So I can share with everybody, right?
09:51We're good. We're good.
09:53This is real business.
09:54The guy would cook food from his house, him and his wife,
09:58way out of Long Island and drove it all the way to Queens.
10:02And it was like his own business within the business. Right.
10:06And that was our food program.
10:08And he had like collard greens because he was like a Southern guy.
10:11And he had like all kind of like the traditional Southern stuff.
10:15Smothers smothered chicken and mac and cheese.
10:18And he would have the heaters going and people ask for an order.
10:23And then he'll like scoop it out and then serve it.
10:26And that was our food program.
10:28But I knew that I needed to bring the brand together as one.
10:33I can't do this.
10:34We have to bring everything under one umbrella.
10:36And so what does Nearest Tavern represent?
10:39Like, what does it represent?
10:42And I said, Queens is the world's borough.
10:45They have the most eclectic food program, probably.
10:49And I'm pretty sure in the world.
10:52And and I'm like, well, if you could eat Pakistani
10:56or, you know, Dominican food or Thai all within the same block.
11:02Like, what what are we?
11:04And so I settle on this one thing
11:08back to an immigrant in America, what brings us together?
11:12And I said, it's the all American burger.
11:15We can all sit and eat as a unit, a unit together
11:20as Americans over the all American burger.
11:25So I made Nearest Tavern a place where you can get great burgers,
11:31because that's the one thing I felt represented us as Americans,
11:34despite Queens having the most diverse 180 different languages
11:39and foods all around, you know, that that represents the world.
11:43America, all American burgers.
11:44So Nearest Tavern is known for their Goodfellow burger,
11:48a bunch of other type of burgers that we create.
11:51And if you look, we actually was named the top 10 burger
11:55in New York state by New York Beef Council in 2022.
11:59So we went a long way from actually, you know, bringing food from the house
12:04and then, you know, heating it up and then serving it.
12:08So that's that's the food program we started.
12:11And I'm proud. I'm proud of that. I'm proud of that.
12:14Is it easier?
12:16Was it easier to be a firefighter or a restaurant owner?
12:21Oh, a restaurant owner was harder.
12:25It was easy to be a firefighter.
12:27Yeah. No, no. Yeah, absolutely. No, no.
12:29I'm going to tell you now I've been both sides decades on both doing both 15 years
12:34and then pretty much 20 years of fight upon.
12:37It was definitely harder for the restaurant because you have to think about it.
12:43Like you are you are in the restaurant business because you are passionate.
12:48Your heart bleeds passion and service like really.
12:53Otherwise you won't last.
12:55You know, like I think I think Steve Jobs says you got to have passion,
12:59you know, because any normal person will burn out and just quit.
13:03And so after 15 years, I realized I had I had this passion.
13:08And so the passion kept me going because there are so many different people
13:12you have to please.
13:13If you think about micro transactions, right, restaurants
13:17essentially are micro transactions. We got to fill those seats.
13:20You know, it's not like we're going to get a two thousand dollar,
13:22you know, order every day to keep up.
13:25No, it's like these twenty, thirty dollar thing.
13:27So and all of those people have subjective opinions.
13:31What's a good burger to them, you know, is not a good burger to you
13:34and vice versa and all of this stuff.
13:36And as I said, medium and this is medium.
13:39Well, like, you know, all those things.
13:42So it's really, really challenging, especially the government.
13:46It just and then understanding how to work the technology
13:51and all the stuff that happens to you.
13:53It's it really it's really a challenge.
13:55So I I mean, I love the restaurant industry,
13:59but it's definitely harder than fighting fires, in my opinion.
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14:44You remember when you found your voice as a restaurant owner?
14:49Yeah.
14:51Give us a story.
14:52Actually, actually, I don't know if I want to talk about it,
14:55because it's really for me, it just it was it was just
15:01I knew why I was here.
15:03So it's just it was really tough for me
15:08realizing certain things.
15:11But let's just say that
15:14I'm doing this to help save one of America's oldest taverns.
15:21And bring it to 200 anniversary, because it's it's it's like a set.
15:26It's bigger than burgers and beer.
15:29It's bigger than trying to be, you know, the chef on the billboard.
15:33Like, if I look back at it, you know, we wanted a first or only restaurant
15:37in New York City to have a street like literally street named after us.
15:41And and it says Nearest Tavern Way.
15:45And I remembered when I took it over instead of it,
15:50me changing the name to Loy's Tavern,
15:53like most chefs and people would do, because, you know, I get it.
15:57I wanted to honor the family that had the longest from the 1800s to 1960s.
16:02So I named it near family.
16:04It was like a German French family.
16:06And so I named it that.
16:08And it's just it's more than me.
16:10It's bigger than me. It's bigger than Loy.
16:13And I and I hope that when I'm gone, people would realize
16:18that it's not about me.
16:19It's about it's about we and it's about you bringing people together
16:24in this thing called, you know, community gathering space.
16:27That is our restaurants.
16:30Do you remember when you realized how powerful the Internet was
16:33to connect humans and build community in real life?
16:38Yeah. Oh, yeah.
16:40I mean, there's so there's different ways to build communities, right?
16:43Um, online is definitely
16:47one of those ways.
16:49When I realized how powerful it is, I'm going to tell you this now.
16:53And it stems back from when we were going to close.
16:57And 10 years after owning the tavern, unfortunately, we lost our lease.
17:02It was a really shady situation.
17:05And I found out that we lost our lease
17:08because when I came to the restaurant and I saw a letter underneath the door
17:13and I looked at it, looked at the letter and it was literally saying,
17:16your rent is tripled.
17:18The building is sold and that's it.
17:21Pay this rent.
17:22And I'm looking, I'm like, I, I can't I can't pay that like I can't.
17:28And just everything just kind of like just, you know, just like, you know,
17:32if if if if I could turn white, that's probably
17:35what if what if what if happened to me, you know?
17:39And, you know, that day we we we we we we I looked back at it
17:47and I was like, what am I going to do?
17:50I, you know, I have this mission and I just it's just too much.
17:55I can't pay that guy, you know, and we fought.
17:57We fought. We fought.
17:59Actually, I talked to him, talked to him, and it just wasn't working.
18:02And I created this community group called Nears 190.
18:06And it just so happened that we were turning 190 years that year.
18:12And so we kind of switched from turning to, you know, fighting this landlord
18:16because we had no leverage.
18:19We had no we you don't have any leverage is the capitalist world.
18:22And you're trying to do this community thing.
18:24It's not it's not going to work.
18:27But what ended up happening was amazing
18:29because we end up throwing the biggest block party for celebrate 190 years.
18:34700 people came out.
18:36Nothing. Everything was paid for through the community and sponsorships
18:39and things like that.
18:40And we had millions and millions of publicity.
18:43And then about a few months later, January, I literally ran out of,
18:47you know, the money because I was trying to pay this crazy rent.
18:51And I had to make the announcement that and I brought
18:56some of those community members together.
18:57I had to make the announcement that it was a Wednesday night.
19:00And I told my group that, hey, I'm going to have to close on Sunday.
19:04And I was just tired.
19:06Like, I was just tired.
19:07I was tired of fighting.
19:08I was just tired.
19:09And I was doing dual jobs and all kind of stuff.
19:13And Thursday, the news broke.
19:16And I actually had New York Times following the story
19:20for about a year because I said, if New York City's oldest
19:23have is going to close, I want this new source to document
19:26the closure of one of America's oldest taverns over this situation.
19:31And so they kept following me.
19:32And so I told them and they came that night.
19:34It took a picture.
19:35If you look at the New York Times article, you'll see a picture that that day.
19:40And they dropped the news on Thursday.
19:43And then I put an email out to my customers
19:49and like social media and everything.
19:51And the social media started.
19:54Well, what? What?
19:55And it went from this little grumble to like this little what was going on.
19:59And all of a sudden it was just started livening up.
20:01Social media started blowing up and it's just stuff started happening.
20:06And then media coverage.
20:07And 24 hours later,
20:11I made a call to the mayor.
20:14And I say because this is part social media
20:18and also part like traditional media.
20:22Yeah. Especially back then. Right.
20:24And I made a call to the mayor's
20:27phone line that they had for a radio show call.
20:29And someone gave me a tip and I called in and he said,
20:34yeah, how can I help you?
20:36I told him the story about this historic tavern and what I'm trying to do
20:39and how it's not fair and this and that.
20:42And he said, I already know.
20:44I see it all over social media.
20:46I see it in New York Times.
20:48What can we do to help?
20:49And literally they locked us in the room with Queens Chamber of Commerce.
20:55The mayor's officials, the elected officials and the landlord finally together.
20:59And this is documented in Harvard Business Review, by the way.
21:03Really? Locked us in a room.
21:04Yeah. They locked us in a room
21:07for hours and the mayor was on the line.
21:09So you guys figured out the city of New York wants to know.
21:12There's all kind of media coverage happening.
21:15There's live reports.
21:16There's updates on ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News.
21:19All this. I didn't know this is afterwards.
21:22And we left that room.
21:24And he says, I'm going to come to the tavern that night.
21:27And he came to the tavern at night because he walked in and the place.
21:31I literally I walked up when I went to the tavern that night after the meeting.
21:36It was like the streets was filled with people.
21:40Like it was just you couldn't move.
21:41It was like Times Square.
21:42Like it was like literally Times Square.
21:45And I went in, we we muscled our way through and I'm following the mayor
21:49and he's going behind the bar.
21:51And he said, we have an announcement to make.
21:54There's Tavern to say we have a five year lease and another five year option,
21:58so we're going to reach 200 years old and the whole place erupted.
22:03It was like was that with that movie, that Christmas story or whatever it is.
22:06A wonderful life.
22:07It was like a wonderful life moment.
22:10Everybody was crying.
22:11Everybody was just like, oh, my God, relieved.
22:14They couldn't believe it.
22:15And so within 24 hours of the announcement dropped that Thursday,
22:21nearest Tavern was saved because of social media, our email list
22:26and calling it to bear and all of these people that came together to say,
22:30hey, we have to be here, we have to help.
22:33And that's how I eventually been on all these national shows
22:37and all this stuff and a 15 second of fame, I thought would happen
22:41end up becoming like three, four years of constant media.
22:45And it was just and I'm a shy guy.
22:46I don't like doing that stuff.
22:50So social media is powerful.
22:52The Internet is powerful.
22:53And that's why I kind of want to get to.
22:57This is our new competitive advantage as small restaurant owners.
23:01If used correctly, you can literally change
23:05the course of your life in the course of your restaurant
23:08and also use the power of community to really, you know, make a bigger impact.
23:14What does it mean to you now to be on that journey, to be
23:19how long ago was that where you said 20, 29, 20, 20,
23:23the 20, 29 will be the end of the five year options.
23:26Was it too? Yeah, it'll be 2030 specifically.
23:28Two hundred years. Twenty nine.
23:31So twenty, twenty nine will be 200 years and then 2030 will be the renewal.
23:35The next year at least will be up the next year.
23:38The next storytelling storytelling begins now.
23:42Absolutely. So we're launching a road to 200 campaign.
23:46We have a customer community group that volunteers on Facebook.
23:50So we're using digital media again, social media and telling the story.
23:54So we have about five, 600 people in that Facebook group
23:57and they're just there to volunteer to help.
24:01And so we do a little outings to other restaurants
24:04that's having problems just to pack their restaurants.
24:08There was a whole ice cream shop that was going to close and we drove 45 minutes.
24:12It was about 30 of us.
24:13We packed up the nearest for years community group.
24:16We packed up. We went 45 minutes to have ice cream and we packed the place.
24:20They're like, well, we don't have enough seats.
24:23So we have that group that's really there to help propel us
24:27into the 200 anniversary as a volunteer and not a coupon community.
24:31They just literally align with the cause.
24:35And we also have a Nears Ambassadors Club.
24:39Essentially, they are premium.
24:41They pay dues to be part of, to support us, to be part of the journey,
24:46to support us on the road to 200 and also help causes they care about.
24:51What keeps you going?
24:56I mean, you know, you ask these questions, man, I don't like them.
25:03I'm a I'm a unfortunately, I'm a little deep guy.
25:06Sometimes when you ask these questions, man, like, you know,
25:10you know, you hit to the soul, brother.
25:12It's my job. It's my job.
25:14You hit to the soul.
25:16My job. We have a we have an amazing community.
25:18If anyone's listening to this or watching this, I mean, this
25:22this is why we do what we do.
25:23I mean, you and I, we've never met in real life.
25:25When I come to New York, you're going to be one of the first places that I go to.
25:29And I'm going to give you a big hug because like you're a brother to me.
25:31Like you've been an inspiration.
25:33I love hearing your story every time you tell it.
25:36I can't hear it enough.
25:38And people all over the world, whoever
25:40whoever's in the bar business, hotel business, stadium business,
25:43restaurant business, food truck catering like we need to hear this stuff.
25:47Like we have to hear it because it's it's a hard work that we do.
25:50Yeah, it is. It is.
25:52Morning. I mean, why do you do it?
25:55That and that's and so and there's a whole story,
25:59but I'm going to just summarize it this way.
26:04You know, this is for the independent single location
26:07restaurant owners that barely crack a million dollars a year,
26:11that the five, six percent profit that they always tout
26:16is what the average, you know, earnings is.
26:19This is this is for you.
26:22I feel you. I am you.
26:27But I want to just say this, make the single most valuable skill
26:32that one of us can develop, cultivate
26:37and really develop as a really powerful skill is is
26:41is the power of building a community around your restaurant.
26:46If we're able to and it's like a doctor, right, you graduate
26:49from doctor school or medicine school, you know, it's not done.
26:52It's a practice, right?
26:54It's a practice, the practice of building community around the restaurant.
26:57That is the single most valuable thing that you can do
27:01as your competitive advantage.
27:03When you don't have economy of scale.
27:07You have the economy of a community, right?
27:10And that is powerful.
27:13And that's why no matter what you're going through,
27:16all those things, you know what I'm talking about,
27:19no matter what you're going through, community conquers all community,
27:23conquers all.
27:24So bring people around you that align with what you're trying to do.
27:28And, you know, you're going to be OK.
27:31Even if it doesn't work out superficially, OK, you'll be OK.
27:35So community conquers all. That's my message.
27:38So one thing I do want to you're phenomenal
27:41when it comes to taking care of your customers in the community.
27:45I want to talk about other partnerships, business partnerships,
27:49because you have to be willing to extend your hand to another bar owner.
27:54And it's something that I see you do as one of the best that I've ever seen.
27:59The way that you're always looking at other organizations to go,
28:02how can we connect the dots so that we can help?
28:05And that's a different side of community.
28:08That's kind of the leadership development side.
28:10How do you do that?
28:11And what advice do you have to anyone that's looking to to do that as well?
28:16I mean, it's single
28:19this single concept that I live by
28:21is that when people shine the spotlight on me,
28:25whether it's entrepreneur media, Cali barbecue media,
28:29or toast or whatever it is, or all of these things that I've been in.
28:34I like to become the mirror.
28:37I like to become the mirror and shine that spotlight back at you.
28:41And I was working with this young lady, Selena's Gourmet.
28:46You know, I don't publicize this stuff, but
28:49and she just had a problem with telling her story.
28:51She's like, and that's not part of me.
28:53Like, I don't I just I just want to sell the stuff.
28:56It's like, yeah, but then you're just a commodity.
28:59You know, your story gives you value, makes you more valuable.
29:04Right. If you just are selling a product now, you're just selling on price.
29:08And that's a losing battle.
29:12So Selena's Gourmet eventually
29:15sat down and I didn't do this stuff.
29:18I'm just going to go off my heart. Right.
29:20And we sat down and we crafted some stuff and they sat down with her.
29:24And, you know, I said, if I would do it, then this is what I would do. Right.
29:27I'm not a consultant.
29:28I'm just trying to help based on what happened with me.
29:32And she sent me a message last week and she had this whole thing.
29:38She grew and she was able to tell her story in this letter.
29:41And now she has something to share rather than go up there and say, hey,
29:45I make gourmet cupcakes like, no, no, no.
29:48This is why I make gourmet cupcakes.
29:50The cupcakes is just a vehicle to this thing that I'm really about.
29:55And that oftentimes is a spark when you don't have money to scale.
30:00You have your story to tell.
30:03And if you could do that well enough, like Selena is starting to do,
30:06then you can have that economy of community, too,
30:10because you're going to build people that's going to start to gravitate around
30:13and want to be your best advocates. Right.
30:16I say community is important because it turned customers into marketers. Right.
30:22That's why I am such a big fan of community and I'm practicing it.
30:26I'm not saying as a panacea, I'm a consultant.
30:29I'm just saying that we should practice that.
30:32I'm not talking about community development or charity work.
30:35You got to do that anyway. That's just being a human.
30:38I'm talking about bringing people with a similar interest as you are together
30:43to make this exponential impact on others.
30:46And at the same time, the byproduct is oftentimes helps your restaurant,
30:51helps you as a person grow.
30:52And so she's doing that right now.
30:54And now she's looking to get some more media and things like that.
30:57I'm sure she'll get it because her story is powerful. Amazing.
31:01Yeah. And I said, you know, like I just want to like.
31:04So that's just one doesn't want to say, but I didn't plan to say it.
31:07But what I decided to do, which probably is costing me
31:14time to working on my business.
31:17But I'm just more passionate about helping
31:20is I was asked to become the executive.
31:23Well, on executive committee for the New York City Hospitality Alliance
31:28to to help, right, to be part of that.
31:30And so, you know, they're doing fantastic work.
31:34So they put me into the leadership position where I'm not asking for this,
31:38but it's just through the act of helping and contributing.
31:43People tend to pick you to, you know, lead something or be part of something.
31:48And like I said at the beginning, before we started recording,
31:51I don't have a PR person. I don't I just pick up the phone.
31:54People are like, no, how are you being in so many stuff?
31:56I think literally I just answer the phone.
31:58I literally answer the phone.
31:59I they email, OK, New York, New York City Food and Wine Festival.
32:03They they're going to be in that one of the largest ones
32:05with all these real chefs there.
32:07And I'm like, I'm like, I just picked up the phone like Larry.
32:11And I just answered an email.
32:14But just try to contribute in that way
32:16with the advocacy organizations and elected officials.
32:20Now, I feel like I can make an impact not just on nears,
32:23but now I can help more small business.
32:26The ones that I'm so aligned with and I feel your pain.
32:31That's amazing.
32:32Well, if you guys are listening to this, if you're watching this,
32:35we would love for you to join our community every Wednesday,
32:38every Friday on LinkedIn Live started on Clubhouse.
32:42Now it's on LinkedIn.
32:43It's the rising tide community.
32:45If you own a restaurant, if you're in hospitality, if you're in tech sales,
32:48marketing, it's a chance for you to come on stage, be a part of the show.
32:52We want to hear from you.
32:53Just follow Cali BBQ Media on LinkedIn.
32:56You can always reach out to me at Sean P.
32:59Walsh.
33:00Before I let you go, Lois, and I need to know,
33:03we believe in smartphone storytelling, as you know.
33:06We believe every business is their own media business.
33:08If they choose to tell their own story, we believe no one's coming to tell
33:12your story and no one can tell your story better than you can.
33:16But we also have the greatest tool in our pocket to be able to do that.
33:20And that is the smartphone.
33:21So are you an Android or an iPhone user?
33:24iPhone.
33:25iPhone. What version?
33:27I think this is the 15.
33:30You've got 15.
33:31And then do you prefer phone calls or text messages?
33:34Phone calls.
33:36Leave a message.
33:37Although you leave, do you leave voicemails?
33:40No. Do you like voicemails?
33:42Yes. You said you prefer text messages or phone.
33:47You prefer phone calls.
33:49Do you prefer emails or text messages?
33:52Emails. How many emails?
33:54Text messages. How many emails do you get a day?
34:00Too many. It's too many.
34:05I can't hear your inbox right now.
34:07I'm getting like anxiety just thinking about it.
34:10So that means I have to fix it.
34:13So hundreds or thousands.
34:14And I need you to stop talking about this right now, because like
34:19there's people now I have to get back to.
34:21Yeah. You're bringing all that back.
34:23Bringing that all back up. Yeah.
34:25How's your how's your notification management for your apps on your phone?
34:30Everything is well, everything is in terms of notification.
34:35Everything is vibrate.
34:37There is a few things.
34:41Yeah, everything is vibrate.
34:43Yeah. And the notification will come up, but there's no noise.
34:46No ping. No noise. No ping. No pinging.
34:50OK. Fair enough.
34:51Which app do you use for your maps?
34:53Apple Maps, Google Maps, Waze?
34:56Google Maps. Google Maps.
34:57Are you Uber or Lyft? Uber.
35:00And do you what do you listen to music?
35:04Pandora, but I'm switching over to Spotify because of all of the podcasts.
35:09So I think I'm I'm really kind of going that way now.
35:13Yeah. I switched from Pandora to Spotify a couple of years back.
35:16It's it's a good switch. It's a good. Yeah.
35:19Yeah. What's your favorite social media app?
35:24I like Instagram, but I prefer
35:28Facebook just because of the community side of it.
35:32I have my community group on there and I have a separate private app
35:35for another community group that I built.
35:38But Facebook seems just a little bit more community friendly a little bit.
35:43And do you prefer photos or videos, taking photos or videos?
35:48Photos. Photos.
35:50I had to pick, but honestly, videos are more powerful.
35:56You have to have the right situation for video, I feel a little bit.
36:01So I gave myself that way.
36:03It's more powerful video, but I prefer photos.
36:07What's an unexpected app that you use frequently?
36:11Something that people wouldn't expect, maybe in the notes app.
36:15I don't know if you would expect that.
36:17I am like literally geeking out in this Apple notes like
36:22it's becoming this obsession.
36:24Like, what else can I do with it? Really? Have you tried journal?
36:26Have you tried the new Apple Journal?
36:29No. It's like notes.
36:31Oh, wait, I did. I have I have it downloaded, but I didn't use it.
36:34I downloaded. Yes. Amazing. Is it?
36:37Oh, my gosh. It's like having another brain.
36:40OK. All right. Amazing.
36:43All right. Now I'm going to have to open it up, open it up.
36:46And then what should we order when we come to visit Nair's Tavern?
36:50Goodfellow Burger and the Haymakers Punch.
36:54Goodfellow Burger and Haymakers Punch.
36:57Is there do you have a favorite mantra or quote
37:00that you like you'd like to share and leave us with?
37:05Yeah, I have my personal one, which is community conquers all.
37:10And the one I sign off with when I do Facebook lives
37:13with my community group is on the road to 200.
37:20It will be hard, but community conquers all Nair's for years.
37:24There it is.
37:25Loyson, you can find him, follow him, support him.
37:29We appreciate you. We appreciate your voice.
37:32Huge fan. I'm grateful to have you on the show.
37:35I can't wait to come and see you in New York.
37:37And if you ever make it to San Diego, when you make it to San Diego,
37:40come by for some Cali barbecue.
37:42And that goes for anybody listening to the show.
37:44Reach out to me. I'm weirdly available.
37:46As always, stay curious, get involved and don't be afraid to ask for help.
37:49We'll catch you guys next week.
37:51Thank you for listening to Restaurant Influencers.
37:53If you want to get in touch with me, I am weirdly available at Sean P.
37:57Walsh of S.H.A.W.N.
37:59P.W.A.L.C.H.E.F.
38:02Cali Barbecue Media has other shows.
38:05You can check out Digital Hospitality.
38:07We've been doing that show since 2017.
38:10We also just launched a show season two family style on YouTube with Toast.
38:15And if you are a restaurant brand or a hospitality brand,
38:19and you're looking to launch your own show, Cali Barbecue Media can help you.
38:23Recently, we just launched Room for Seconds with Greg Majewski.
38:28It is an incredible insight into leadership, into hospitality,
38:33into enterprise restaurants and franchise franchisee relationships.
38:38Take a look at Room for Seconds.
38:40And if you're ready to start a show, reach out to us.
38:43Be the show dot media.
38:45We can't wait to work with you.
38:49Room for Seconds.