Neal Sherman

00:00Hey guys, we are supported by Sharpies Bakery and we've been supported by Sharpies Bakery for the last year and I tell ya, I couldn't be more proud of this partnership. Guys, they're a locally owned and operated bakery right here in Nashville for the last 36 years. Yes, they deliver fresh baked bread daily to your restaurant's back door and man, is it good. You wanna know what kind of bread they make? Go check them out at sharpiesbakery.com. That's C-H-A-R-P-I-E-R-S, bakery.com. So they have over 200 types of bread and if you're wondering, well hey look, it's a special recipe that I like to use that we bake it in our house and it's just, it's kind of a pain but we like to do it. They can take your recipe and make that bread for you without any of the hassle, the mess, the labor. They'll just deliver it right to your door every single day. It is freshly baked. They love to give you a tour of their facility. Give Erin Mosso a call. Her number is 615-319-6453.

01:03You should do it now. What Chefs Want story is incredibly unique. The owner Ron Trenier met with a bunch of chefs in Louisville back in the early 2000s and asked them one simple question. What do you want? And the chefs, they responded emphatically. We want deliveries on Sunday. We wanna be able to split any item that you sell. We want a frictionless experience where we feel like we're being served. And so you know what he did? Something crazy. He did just that. So What Chefs Want is not only a company that's delivering fresh produce, fresh seafood, fresh custom cut meats, specialty items, dairy, gourmet, all of that seven days a week, they also offer 24 seven customer support. You wanna call, you wanna text, you wanna email, you can talk to somebody 24 seven. Get your delivery seven days a week and an amazing selection of products. That is What Chefs Want.

02:04So if you ever wonder why do they call it that? That's your reason. Check em out at whatchefswant.com. Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, the tastiest hour of talk in Music City. Now here's your host, Brandon Styll. Hello Music City and welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. My name is Brandon Styll and I am your host. We are not gonna be joined with Caroline Galzin today. I'll explain in a second, but we are powered by Gordon Food Service. And every few shows, I just like to tell you that if you haven't gone through and done a complete audit of who you're buying your food from, if you're not happy with who you're buying your food from and you don't feel like they're a partner in what you do, you need to contact Gordon Food Service because that is their mission.

03:06They wanna partner with you. They recognize that your largest expense is with your broad line vendor and they can make that a wonderful relationship to help you succeed. So wanted to throw out a shout out to Gordon Food Service. Love those guys. Caroline is on assignment. I've always wanted to say that, but it's not true. She's just not gonna be on this episode today. She's out of town. And this interview kind of happened by chance. A buddy of mine named Neil Sherman gave me a call and he said, hey, I'm gonna be in town. I'd love to catch up. And I said, great, let's do it in front of a microphone. So that's what we did today. Neil Sherman is the CEO of a company called Tag X Brands. Now he's been on the show before. This was in 2020, right? Smack dab in the middle of pandemic because what he does is he runs a company that sells kitchen equipment. He sells brand new kitchen equipment, but he also is the guy you call when you want to close your restaurant. If you wanna close your restaurant and you need to sell everything inside of it, this is the guy to call.

04:10So I introduced him last time as Dr. Kevorkian, which isn't appropriate. Maybe a coroner of sorts, but he is somebody who's in the know of how many restaurants are closing, what it's like now. And I really wanted to get his perspective back in 2020 to see if a bunch of restaurants were closing. And now we're kind of post pandemic. I wanna hear what his life has been like since that day. We talked about all kinds of fun things in this interview, what our projections are for the industry, what he sees, what I see, just a fun conversation between people who haven't seen each other in a long time. And I thought I would share it with you on this wonderful Monday, Monday, Monday. Thank you to everybody who came to the Tennessee Tasting and Toast Nashville. Hope that you had a wonderful time. Thank you for everybody who went to our Instagram page at Nashville underscore restaurant underscore radio. And you tagged a friend you wanted to take or you just followed us.

05:11We really appreciate every follow. And whatever you're listening to this on, go ahead and click the subscribe button or the follow button and you'll get notifications when I put these episodes out. Also, sometimes we do live conversations on YouTube. We have a YouTube channel that you can watch. I have 194 videos we've uploaded into YouTube that you can go back and watch some of your favorite interviews right now. You can see the actual interviews as they go down. So make sure to follow us on YouTube. And again, thank you guys for listening. I hope that you, I hope you enjoy this interview with Neil Sherman. One of those things. I did, I have hit record. Okay.

06:12So it's officially recording, but I can edit any of this, by the way, whatever you want. You don't have to edit. You don't have to edit me at all. We can talk about lost keys. We can talk about lost keys. Are you willing to go there or no? Lost keys? Well, or you forgot your phone and you know. Oh, we can talk about that. Well, my phone is different because I have those air tags on everything else that I own. You know what I'm talking about? I do, I do. Like I've got them on my wallet and I've got them on my keys. I've had to use them like three times in my life. I've had them for over a year, but when I needed to use them, it made up for whatever it costs. Because when you're like, I'm late, where the, you know and then, oh, find my thing and you walk around and you realize you put a hat over your keys on the couch. And you're like, how, how would never have picked up this hat on the couch? It just walks you straight there. I had, I have been, I've been accused of being OCD by my children and my wife. Happens. And it's true.

07:12And, but one of the, one of my neuroses is they always get to the airport obsessively early and they hark back to times like we as a family would show up at the Denver airport before the security got there to open it up. And so I was neurotic. And so I was on the road. We have facilities in Dallas and LA. I went to both, I go to get the car in LA and I'm about to pull out and it sounds like there's no car starting. So I go to another car, go to another car and the woman goes, sir, they're electric. They don't make noise. Yeah. Oh man. Then I couldn't find my license. So I lost my license. So after years of lecturing my children and not losing things, I lost my license and couldn't get around LA in a rental car. So I had to take Ubers everywhere. And then yesterday, when I was going to the airport in Rochester, I told my wife, cause we're going, she's speaking in Miami this morning. I'm here. Where's your wife do? So she's the real celebrity in the household. Well, let's finish your story. We'll get to your wife in a minute.

08:12Okay. So anyways, yesterday, when you live in a place like Rochester, you have to connect everywhere. So you have to leave very early. So, you know, I'm up at 3.30, flights at six, it's 10 minutes from the airport, small city. And we start leaving on the way to the airport and I realized my phone is in the charger. After years and decades of telling my kids and wife, can't lose your phone, can't lose your ID, can't lose your passport, I didn't have it. So we had to drive back. Do as I say, not as I do. And I went on the forgive me family for I have sinned mode, right? Like confession. And I did it again yesterday. And so I've been humbled. I've been truly humbled. That story comes about because I did that today. I was supposed to meet you here and I couldn't call you to tell you that I'm not gonna. So I was 15 minutes, I was gonna be here 35 minutes early. That's me. Spot on. I always want to be the one who's always there.

09:16I wanna be like every single time I have a meeting, I'm like, oh, you're already here. That's kind of my thing. I wanna beat everybody to every meeting. Just like, oh, of course, yeah, I'm already here. I'm weird like that. But today though, I had to turn around and I live 20 minutes away. So I was 15 minutes into my drive to turn around to go home. That's why it drives me nuts though. But I'm on the way home and I'm like, oh, I need to listen to this or I'll call this. That's okay, I got an extra 20 minutes. I'll call somebody, I'll do this. Nope, I just had to sit there and it was kind of nice for a minute. Not having a phone. It's wonderful. I didn't feel any stress of like I'm driving. I feel like driving is like the time that I can multitask. And I get all the things I miss, all the phone calls, I call people back. I do all this stuff while I drive. I never just sit and enjoy a drive, which maybe I need to do. It was nice this morning to do that. And without music or with music either way. I guess we should probably do an introduction here. Whatever you would like. Super excited today to welcome in Neil Sherman to a back to Nashville Restaurant Radio.

10:22We, Neil was on the show on May the 20th, 2020. And we're talking the restaurants. I think the restaurants reopened from the we're closing you like May 18th, May 12th, May 18th, something in that week. That's how long ago it's been. And then you're decades. Yeah, I mean, it really does. And so you were back in, you're in Nashville. And I said, and you said, let's have lunch or let's connect. I said, well, why don't you come in the studio? My fear was that we're gonna have this amazing conversation at lunchtime. We go, damn, I wish I had recorded that. But let's tell it. Last time I think I introduced you as like the Dr. Kevorkian of the industry. And I apologize, because I, like it was like my 12th interview I'd ever done. And I've got a couple hundred under the belt now. But you're the CEO of Tag X Brands. And you're an amazing company where you take kind of brand new and used equipment and then you sell it.

11:24So if your restaurant is getting rid of some stuff or it's closing, you can take your equipment and then you have a website and people can go on and buy all kinds of restaurant equipment. So we, after 35 years, everybody says, what's your elevator speech? And I don't know that I could ever articulate it in conciseness, like if that's a word of an elevator speech. But we basically help people in various stages of the facility and equipment life cycle. So whether they're opening, remodeling or closing a facility or a piece of equipment, we help with those headaches. Because as you know, being a seasoned successful operator for many decades, there's so many things on the list to just get food out to the client, to the customer. And we just kind of deal with those events that occur not regularly. And we started the company in DC and then grew it to 35 warehouses around the country, which was not fun. That's a lot. It was headaches. That's a lot of warehouses. And we knew we needed a central place and we were mostly in cities.

12:25And in the 90s, there were a number of military bases that closed around the country. And there happened to have been one near my hometown, the place I said I'd never moved back to in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York, that no one wanted. In the big cities, they just redeveloped them into other things. And so we bought this army depot that's 1,000 acres in the middle of nowhere. And I think you said there was like 2.5 million square feet. Right, right, 2.5 million square feet. Not all of it with roofs, right? Minor detail. Minor detail. So buildings exist. Some of it looks like post-war Berlin, but we've made do. And we moved the company to Rochester, which is about an hour away, and we operate there. And then we're national. And so we help people, whether they're a small, single operator or a big chain with these headaches of facilities and equipment. And then what we're mostly known for on the positive side, not just the Kovorkian closing side, is that we operate, what we've been told is the largest aftermarket place for restaurant and food-related equipment and supplies.

13:33Meaning, like you said, it's used, in the recent years, about 50% of it is new surplus. And it's a very inefficient market. And chefs are always looking for value and always looking to save dollars. And capital equipment's very expensive. I think people say, did you grow during the pandemic? So our marketplaces, of which the largest one is an auction platform called restaurant-equipment.bid. There's a storefront called restaurant-equipment.shop, which is new, new surplus. And pre-pandemic, we get about a million views a month, right? The pandemic kicks in. Supply is challenged, not just in food products, but in equipment. And people have to operate. They need a flat top. They need a fryer, and they can't get it. So they're much more open-minded to the aftermarket. So it rises to about a million views a day. Wow. You said a million views a week?

14:34It goes from a million views a month to as high as a million views a day. And the auction is dynamic. So we're not like a broad, there's wonderful companies that offer a broad line of equipment and supplies and the big, you know, broad line operators. But we're dynamic. So some days there's a fryer, and some days there's not. You gotta look at it every day. You gotta look at it. Well, there's different auction events that occur and close, and we ship from our facilities, or it's locations in the field that are closed. That's so fascinating. So May 20th, mindset. Where were you at then, and what were your, you know, if you can take yourself back there, because we just had our three-year anniversary here. Congratulations, by the way. You've done an amazing job of taking those back-of-the-house conversations that occur and bringing them out to the community. I mean, it's an amazing thing, because people always, you know, the Kitchen Confidential, you've opened it up to be a kitchen open house.

15:38Well, I'm trying, you know, I think that it's definitely been something that has helped build the community, which is really our goal. But back then, I didn't know. I mean, gosh, I was scared. We were just reopening our restaurants, and I'm trying to do this podcast thing. I'm spending a lot of time with my family. And, you know, I talked to you because, well, I'd met you at this event, and I thought you would have a really unique insight as to what's happening out there in the world. Are people closing? Are they liquidating their stuff? Like, what's happening? I don't know where you were at that day, but fast forward three years, did you expect to be where you're at today? Or, and what is the current state? Because I think you have a really unique insight into what's happening in this industry nationally. Sure, you know, it's interesting that when you read press from people in the industry, whether it be the big corporations or the analysts, everything's always wonderful, right?

16:40And the reality is, as you well know, is it's not always wonderful. I think if I go back three years, and again, I applaud all you've done with this show to connect people in this community, I think the next stage for you is to broaden it to the, not just the Nashville radio show, but the national restaurant show. And there are other podcasts, but I think you provide a huge, amazing perspective on it. I think the uncertainty was always there for people in the restaurant food service industry. There was optimism, because restaurant operators are fundamentally optimists. They have to be to pull all the pieces together, the thousands of things that they have to do. I think that there was a belief that in distressed times, one of two things happen. People throw in the towel, or they roll up their sleeves and do what needs to be done. And the strong survive. And I think in my mindset, I believed that we were always a good resource for people in turbulent times, whether it be in their concepts, or with their communities when businesses were closing, or they were, interest rates were up, they're up again.

17:55Rent is crazy still. I think there really hasn't been since that May 20th, which you said we were the number 12 session on the- Something like that, I don't mean- It was early. It was early. It was early, non-three digits, right? No, it was definitely within the first 100. Right, right. So I think that that uncertainty of restaurants was magnified. And I think that the perception of some people said, hey, I'm out, I'm not gonna participate in the restaurant industry anymore. I'm of a certain age or I'm just tired, I don't wanna do it. There were two good things that occurred, whether it be due to government intervention or just practical approach by banks and landlords, which was either a stated or a subtle moratorium on rent and bank payments, whether it be lease payments or what have you. And I think people say, well, that was very generous. I think it was very necessary.

18:55Yeah, it had to happen. They had no choice, regardless of the market of the country. And I think that that gave a pause to what could have been the true apocalypse of the restaurant industry amongst other sectors. And I think that pause allowed people to regroup, reassess. Do I wanna be in this business? Do I not? If I'm in this business, how do I get the people, the product, the equipment, the facilities to make things happen? Because one of the biggest challenges in our industry is people. And getting people and younger people, when I was younger and I'm a bit older than you, and when you were younger, you worked in restaurants. Everybody worked in restaurants. That was cool. And I don't think there's as much inventory of desire anymore to do it. I think the internet's changed a lot of things for people. I think I read somewhere like 70% of kids, when you ask them now what they wanna do, they wanna be an influencer. Is that true? Yeah, it's like, if you ask a seventh grader, what do you wanna do?

19:59I wanna be an influencer. Because, what do you mean? I get my phone and I just take videos of stupid shit that I'm doing, and I can put it on the internet and make millions of dollars. And then people pay me for that influence. If I was that age, that's what I would want to do. I don't know that I would have wanted to videotape the things I was doing that would be cool. Because, thank goodness there weren't videotapes around. Yeah. I mean, I was like, there was no way I should have been videotaped. Right, right, and that was evidence. You just don't have the, I don't know. I couldn't imagine if there was evidence. I've never dated in the internet age. I've never, I mean, a whole high school, college, no Facebook, no social media. Think about that dating app thing. It's kind of, I mean, if it connects to people who are meant to be, so be it. But it was much tougher back then. You had to have powers of persuasion. And it worked on your schtick, your line, so.

21:01The idea that you can just go online and swipe left or whatever and just have, oh, hey, you look cool, hey, let's go out somewhere. Just the bravado to do that, versus having to walk up to a girl somewhere and say, in a grocery store, be like, hi, what's your name? Are you single? Do you know where the avocados are? Do you know where the, is that the line? Of the pineapples, do you know where the? I don't think there were avocados in supermarkets back then, so. That's a new kind of recent era. But you talk about that three years ago and the uncertainty and I think that the people that are committed to the industry are there. I think a lot of people have always looked at the restaurant industry as, if they come from another profession, whatever that might be as, how tough can it be, right? So it's like, aren't you always perplexed by that? Is the people saying, how tough can it be? I think those are the people that didn't make it through the pandemic. Correct, correct. The ones who prior to the pandemic said, how tough can it be? I'll just open a restaurant. I think Anthony Bourdain puts it really well in Kitsch Confidentially says, the rich guys who throw dinner parties, dinner party says, hey, you should open a restaurant.

22:10This is fantastic. And they go, maybe we should open a restaurant. And then after they open a restaurant and all the comps that they've comped all their friends to come and eat, a month after they open the restaurant, all of a sudden the dishwasher doesn't show up and they're there 12 hours in a day washing dishes. There's sewage coming out of the floor. The line cook is sleeping with the hostess in the bathroom. And it's like, oh, I got to generate, this is an actual business? Like, what do I have to do? And those are the people I think that had a hard time. It was a tough deal. It was tough. I think a couple of things happened. One is, if you recall during that period, leading up to that period, there was always a question, what's the role of these delivery services, right? And there was a lot of them that were on the bubble and who's gonna pay? Is it the operator? Is it the, you know- Both. Customer? Right. They figured out both will pay. And what a good fortune for them that they had that event occur. They're the real doctor who work into the industry. Well, they've done incredibly well. Yeah.

23:11And then what happened was a couple other things and we could talk about this, but one is what I refer to as the blurring of sectors, right? When we were kids, your father went to a gas station to get gas and, you know, your mother went to a supermarket for groceries and on occasion, you'd go out to a restaurant as a family and now you can go to what was a gas station and get complete prepared foods. And I think that accelerated during the pandemic is that some of these retailers realized that they were just a sales channel and that they could offer other things. So that put another competitive dimension into it that became challenging. The other was that we've seen unbelievable change in is this concept of ghost kitchens. And in my mind, a ghost kitchen was a great Wall Street thing to invest in and people put in billions, literally billions of dollars into these operations. And many of them spawned and didn't have restaurant people that were part of their operation.

24:14So they built these mega commissaries and they thought that they were gonna put virtual brands in every market in America and they thought that there'd be enough traction for that to occur to compete against, hey, it's a no overhead-ish kind of concept. And what happened was those guys are paying the price now because we are liquidating a great deal of that equipment, shall we say, that was in the if come ghost kitchen world. Really? Yeah. It's an amazing thing. It's amazing to me, there were two, which will go nameless, that two of the ones that we've done work for raised a billion and a half each, a billion and a half dollars. That's more than I make in a year. Yeah, no, I know. And I can only make, I can only look to make what you make in a year and a lifetime. But so they spent a billion and a half dollars and because they were like, get it done, get it built, it's the pandemic, we are gonna serve this. Well, then you need, as you know, there's a thing called perishable food, right?

25:18And so you need enough volume, you need enough traffic, you need enough people buying it to be able to do it. And then I think at the end of the day is the pandemic, in different markets of the country, eased up and restaurants became open again, people have this burning desire to connect and be in a community and a restaurant or a bar is a place to do that. I think it's still happening. Yeah, yeah. I don't think that it's, I think it's gonna last for another five years. Yeah, people wanna- Maybe more. People wanna be together, right? The pandemic was almost the great reset. You know, I think like anything, you don't know what you got till it's gone. That amazing, is that Poison? Is that Motley Crue? I don't know. I don't know, that's not my, I'm an Allman Brothers. Don't know what you got till it's gone. But you take it away, then all of a sudden you're like, oh, I didn't realize much, I needed that. All of the complaining, all of the Yelp reviews, all the things, all of a sudden it kind of reset. People were like, hey, I'm gonna find gratitude. I'm gonna find grace, for the most part. They're outliers of course. But I think the thing to me that came out of the pandemic was innovation.

26:22I think there's so much innovation that came out of it in what kind of food we eat, in how we pay people, in how we hire people, how we market, how we execute. I mean, there's just so many really interesting things that have come out, and I can't name a bunch of them for you right now. But as I sit and talk to chefs, and I talk to restaurant owners about what they're doing and how they're doing it, I never cease to be fascinated by, wow, what an interesting way to do that. How did you figure that out? Oh, we had eight months where nobody came to our restaurant and we had a bunch of smart people, and we sat in a room and tried to figure out how to do it. And you go, yeah? I mean, I think everybody was so damn busy for so long, just that quote unquote, I'm just so busy, that all of a sudden, once you figured out the gravity of this whole thing, you figured out, oh my gosh, I have to fire everybody, and you go through that emotions of everything, then became really a moment of how are we gonna, the real restaurateurs. I said, I've been really proud to do this show for three years because you can go back to May 20th and you can hear my evolution.

27:28You can hear me talk on May 20th. I'm like, hello, welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. Today, we're speaking with Neil Sherman, and it's like a whole- You've done great. You've done great stuff. It's a whole funny thing, but it's really amazing to watch true leaders because there's no playbook on how to lead through a pandemic. But I've got to interview all these people, and I went back and I've actually listened to a bunch of episodes from March, April, May, June, July, and to hear people's voices at the beginning of this thing, and there's trepidation, and they're scared, and they're like, I don't know what I'm gonna do. And now those people are crushing it, but there is a lot of vulnerability, and I just love the idea of going back and listening to all these old episodes. It takes you back. Will Gadara, you know who he is? Yeah, how do I- He owned 11 Madison Park, and he just wrote a book called Unreasonable Hospitality. And he became, he turned 11 Madison into vegan. He didn't. Oh, successor did, I guess.

28:29His successor did. He turned it into the number one restaurant in the world. Right. Sold it, and then they turned it vegan. I don't opinion about that, but he said, perspective, he said his dad told him that perspective has a timeline, and that when he was younger, his dad told him to journal throughout as he climbed the ladder, because if you're a server, when you become a manager, your superpower when you first start is that you have every single aspect of what the servers are doing. That's a front on your brain. A year after you become a manager, you fall into the, well, now I'm a manager, and you're a serverer, and you see the manager's perspective. He said, but go back and read your notes from when you were going through that so that you can remain that perspective, because the perspective has a timeline. And since that conversation, I've gone back and listened to these old episodes, and I'm like, man, do you remember? It wasn't a decade ago. It was two years ago. Right, right. That we were all, what are we gonna do? And now we're kind of roaring.

29:32It's great, I mean, obviously the political landscape of this country is a little wacky right now, especially here in Tennessee. That's an understatement. But don't you think, I mean, it is exciting times. It's interesting, I just wonder, you're in one of the most vibrant restaurant communities in the world, Nashville, in terms of its diversity, in terms of its passion. I don't think it's that diverse. Really? Yeah. I mean, the passion is there, right? I mean, you have the music vibe, the continuum of types of music that's here, and the growth of the community. It's interesting, I was with somebody yesterday, and they said, oh, you're from New York. And I said, no, I'm from upstate New York. They said, well, what does that mean? I said, a suburb? I said, no, it's six hours from New York. The town we're in is 1,200 people, our warehouse. It is the opposite of New York City. It's the opposite of New York City. And I said, you know what? We're more Tennessee than Tennessee is today. We're more, you know, rural in nature.

30:34I wonder, though, you say that things are roaring. Things are roaring here. And I think things roar in some bigger cities. Other big cities have big problems. When you hear that sound, it's probably too late. You need a guy. I wanna be your guy. I'm Kevin with Course in Fire and Security, and I'm a Restaurant Territory Account Manager. Do you know who's doing your inspections at your restaurant? Please reach out to me at 615-974-2932. I'd be glad to come out and take a quick look and look at all your fire safety inspection needs. If you're building your restaurant, we can help with that too. As far as kitchen suppression, fire extinguishers, emergency lights, we do it all. One stop, one shop. Call Kevin at 615-974-2932. Let me be your guy, Nashville. Hey, this is Jason Ellis with Nashville SuperSource. We're so proud to be a sponsor for Nashville Restaurant Radio.

31:38We would love the opportunity to discuss your chemical and dish machine program with you. If you have any needs or any questions about your current program, opening a new restaurant, or just need a double set of eyes on that, we'd love the opportunity to help you with that. My number is 770-337-1143. We don't do any contracts, no minimums, weekly service to make sure that all your equipment is functioning properly. Make sure you have everything that you need. Again, my name is Jason Ellis, 770-337-1143. Are you a hospitality worker looking to purchase a new home? Don't settle for just any realtor. Use someone who understands your industry. Our real estate partner, John Ho, has a history in hospitality and is now able to help our industry through the home buying process. Along with his partner at Foundation Mortgage, they have the products and intimate knowledge of the hospitality industry to assist you in identifying properties to purchase and get you qualified for financing. Too often in our industry, we've been fed lies about the path to home ownership.

32:38The truth is, you don't need great credit scores. You don't need tens of thousands of dollars for a down payment, and you certainly don't need two years of employment at one job. Don't take chances with one of the most significant purchases of your life. Trust people who understand the needs of hospitality workers. A team who is non-judgmental and is flexible enough to accommodate any hospitality schedule. And for you managers and executives listening out there, reach out to them to inquire for free information you can pass along to your staff. Contact them today to start your home buying journey with the right team. John Ho at 615-483-0315, or you can follow him on Instagram at housepetality. Amanda Gardner with Foundation Mortgage is 865-230-1031. Find her on Instagram at mortgageamanda. I wonder though, you say that things are roaring. Things are roaring here. And I think things roar in some bigger cities. Other big cities have big problems.

33:40We're in Los Angeles, right? They have a lot of challenges in the state of California. And yet it's LA. I've always been passionate of loving the weather in LA when you live in a place where there's, you know, there's two seasons, 4th of July. We had LA weather here the past few days. Yeah, no, I know. It's been wonderful. Thank you very much, by the way. We did that for you. Thank you. Yes. And so, but you go to smaller cities and they don't necessarily have the passionate people, the passionate restaurant leaders to endure the pain and suffering along the way. And you're left with the chains, right? So the chains have their own implication on this. The independent operator is one thing, but the chains are another. And how do you keep, you know, when you think of these, if had these operators journaled along the way, it's a tough thing to continue to recruit. You know, if you're, take that next step from a manager to a district manager, a regional manager, and you've got literally hundreds of jobs you have to fill on a regular basis.

34:40The chains, I think in some respect, the casual dining chains have gone through incredible seismic change in recent years with the growth of really great independent operators. You know, they had their comeuppance. I think the quick service guys nationally have gone, you talk about trends. I know guys in Iowa who run chains of like 15, 20, 50, you know, burger places, names you would recognize, who chose through the pandemic to not open again to the public and only do drive-through. Only do drive-through. Three people operate a Wendy's in Iowa. Three people. Wow. I said, well, why aren't you gonna open? He goes, well, I'm in a small town in Iowa. I can't get people. I'm adjacent to a college town, but those people don't wanna work at a Wendy's or a Burger King. And so we've decided to operate three people we haven't been this profitable ever. And so they only operate at any given shift with three people.

35:42It's somebody taking the orders, somebody kind of managing things, and somebody in the back of the house. Who's making it. They're just making it. And I think that the other piece that's kind of interesting is the desire of people to try to, the home delivery thing is an interesting thing, right? So Amazon, you know, you see these pictures on social media of like 20 or 30 boxes on somebody's, you know, my wife did a really good job. She was very competitive in that, you know. I would say, I think that reminds me of my front yard. Yeah. And people just started buying stuff and, you know, delivering it to their house. And at the end of the day, that became something that was more efficient, more reliable. But to your point, the desire for community is not there. The desire to go grab a coffee and chat with the barista or go to a bar and chat with the bartender or the people sitting at the bar. You can't do that in your house. Or your friends. You know, my wife likes to go to the mall with one of her friends and they go into shops and look at clothes.

36:47What do you think of this? What do you think of that? Let's talk about it. And it's just a time, they spend time together. Right. You don't do that on Amazon. It's a community thing. Well, correct. And I think the question becomes what happens to the industry, right? And so what happens, you had this seismic once in a lifetime, like the 100 year flood, right? Like the once in a lifetime thing called the pandemic. And then over time you realize, and you forget about the political landscape or chaos of politics. I find all politics dysfunctional. And I think that people are much more aware of, okay, this is this thing called COVID is here in some way, shape, or form forever. When you think of the stats, my wife and I would always get flu shots. And that the success rate of a flu shot is like 35%. And the success rate of the COVID vaccine is much, much higher. So people are like poo-pooing the vaccine but taking the flu shots. It's like, you gotta kinda go one way or the other on this thing. And so that just becomes the way things are.

37:48And I think, I was in a, you think of all the changes. So I got a call from a guy. I was in a guy's warehouse in Nashville to be unnamed yesterday. And he had all these pallets. And I was like, what are these pallets? He goes, well, that's sanitizer. We converted our distillery to a sanitizer, to make sanitizer. And we were- You were at Pennington's? No, no, no, no, no. Oh. It was like- He made a ton of- A storage place, right? Oh, okay. So I go, what are you gonna do with it? Because you have to pay to dispose of it because it's not good for the environment. And then some guy from Memphis called me, coincidentally in your state. I have 6,400 pallets of wipes and sanitizer. I'll give it to you if you take it. And I was like, so 6,400. I mean, that's hundreds of truckloads of stuff. I said, I have no desire for that. So I think there's this hangover effect that's occurring where people are mopping things up, where people are dealing with things. The other thing that people don't talk about, and you have a beautiful downtown area here, is the percentage of vacancies in the office environment, which is gonna have a huge impact on wonderful restaurateurs who do great lunch business, who do great dinner business.

38:56I'm dealing with that right now. Yeah. In one of your- Yeah, our restaurant, Maribol, it's in an office park. I mean, it's over in Maryland Farms. And literally, there's a whole mile long street with office buildings that are half empty. And I mean, our business at lunch is good, and we're doing pretty well, but when all the offices are half empty, it's difficult to- Right, so that's a huge- We'd love to have those people back in their offices. Well, and I think people enjoy, some people, a lot of people really enjoyed working out of the house. I think you had to operate that way. I mean, if you have a restaurant or you have a warehouse, you need people. But I think the implication right now, when you think of the economic turmoil, I think that people are lighter on their feet now, post-COVID, and they're much more aware of being able to deal with things, right? It deal with chaos, because chaos was the denominator of every day back in May of, right? Yeah, I wonder how that affects the generation.

40:00When you think about generational, gen Z, gen X, boomers, and all the things like, I wonder if there's like a whole shift in gen Z because they were growing up during this time, and a lot of kids lost almost a whole year of school. All the homeschooling, all the, or if there's like some weird social disorder that happens with the generation or not, I don't know. Well, for people that are neurotic, it exacerbated it, right? So, if people are germaphobe, I mean, boy, COVID, what a great opportunity to be legitimized, right? See, I told you, I told you. But I think what happens now, and it's coming to light for me with a lot of, because we deal with locations that are remodeling or closing and move equipment and liquidated in the aftermarket, is that the open-mindedness to change is the thing that we all have to embrace. And I think when you look at some cities in this country that have 50 to 55% office vacancy, 50 to 55%, I was in Los Angeles a couple weeks ago, and one of our clients has a bunch of restaurant and retail holdings and said, listen, you gotta come to this office building in downtown LA.

41:11And it was a beautiful office building. And there were, I said, well, said to the guard as I was waiting, you know, how many floors in this building? He said, 18. I said, how many are occupied? And he goes, one. I said, well, what does that mean? He goes, well, there's other people that lease here, but no one's coming to work. And so the little, you know, luncheonette next door, not gonna survive. Now, you know, 17 of 18 floors not there. And so the question becomes, how do you continue to keep it real? The other thing that was kind of going back to the ghost thing for a second is that the traditional restaurant operators in this time of food trucks, ghost kitchens, whatever, is that those people came in and one of the things they thought they could do is just pull up a trailer somewhere and operate, right? Then they realized that the restaurant guys like, well, wait a minute, I'm paying licensing, I'm paying taxes, I'm paying utilities. You can't just pull up on my curb and in front of my restaurant take my business. So I think that's another thing that's going through a lot of chaos.

42:12We have a lot of food trucks and a lot of food trailers available on our marketplaces for people. And the other thing you talk about change, I think that scratch-made is always a wonderful thing unless you don't have the labor. Then you have to go to premade in a warehouse or in a commissary in a factory or something like that. And in some respects, it's more consistent. I see a lot, you know, it's interesting right now, and you'd appreciate this having spent so much time in the back of the house, is that I was saying to one of my guys, I said, it just seems like a lot of chains are doing away with conveyor ovens. And I said, what is going on here? And I start calling a couple of these people, one chain is getting rid of 300 conveyor ovens and another, and they said, well, a conveyor oven means that you have to be on your game to prepare the item going through the conveyor, to time it, to temperature and everything else.

43:13And we don't have the personnel to be able to do that. So we're going pre-made, pre-packaged, pre-frozen, sous-vide or non-sous-vide, it doesn't matter. And we're just heating it up. Dumbing it down. Dumbing it down. And when you think, you ask what happens to this next generation, it's not that... I think there'll always be an allure to the restaurant business, right? It's exciting, it's interesting, it's always fascinating, there's always something new. But I think the lack of basic employees is forcing innovation, as you had said at the top of our discussion, forcing innovation so that you don't just basically... It used to be the apprentice system, right? You'd come up, you'd be a chopper, then a sous-chef, and then you'd work your way up, right? That's what happened. And now you don't have those people. Why do you not have those people? It's not like all those people died. No. Where'd they go? I think there's a generational shift, to your point.

44:13I think that people want balance, whatever that might mean to people. I think younger people see how hard their parents, grandparents, whatever, worked, and maybe don't desire that seven-day-a-week lifestyle, and want something that has more balance, the influencer thing. I can work in my bedroom, play Xbox, and then I can do all the other things, right? I don't think that there's a desire there. I wanna play a TikTok for you. Sure. If I can get it to play here, I'm gonna try and figure out how to do this. And it's silly. It's a silly thing. I send my family TikToks. They are always amused by that. Do you? Because I do the same thing, like I'm always sending people TikToks. I see, or like a- Do you get ignored by your kids and your spouse? Do I get ignored? By your kids and spouse when you send them, or do they go, come on, dad? No.

45:15All right, let me find out if you have to... Have I turned this up? I'm almost there. Does the Nashville Restaurant Radio Hour have a TikTok account? Oh yeah. We've got a lot of followers. Really? It's kind of crazy. All right, you ready? I'm gonna play this for you. This is a job interview with a millennial. All right, here we go. I'm just gonna put the- Right? Yes. Eight, like, in the morning, eight? Yes, in the morning. Yeah, that kind of doesn't work for me. Who gets up at eight? I do. I Skype with my French boyfriend and Paris until like three in the morning. I don't even get to Starbucks until like 10, where I order my Grande Char-T latte, three pumpkin milk, white water, two percent foam, extra hot, but not too hot. So if it's okay, I work best in the morning at 10.45. Wow. Maybe I don't think we're gonna be a good fit.

46:17Why are you so negative? I can sense your hostilities and right now I am not feeling very safe. I've been here for over five minutes and the only nice thing you have said to me was nice resume, which I typed all night for this meeting with you. You've given me no guidance, no validation, no encouragement, no supervision. Is there an HR director somewhere? HR director? Yes, I need to speak to someone. I may have to take off today. It's a mental health day. Take the day off. Amy, Amy, look at me. You don't work here. Are you firing me? Okay, yes. Brilliant. That is brilliant. I love that you have to send that to me. I mean, it's scary, but true. Obviously it's parody, but who wants to come in at seven o'clock in the morning and clean the restaurant and open up and cut lemons and cut slits and lemons and roll silverware and do all the stuff?

47:23Well, the question becomes to those that are hardworking, to those that wanna do it, the spoils will be theirs, will it not? I mean, if there's fewer people competing for those jobs and fewer people doing it, I mean, the restaurant industry will always be attractive to many people for a whole host of reasons. See, I think it's coming back. Maybe, I don't know what. Younger people wanting to participate or the restaurant industry? I think that the really talented people out there, the people who worked in restaurants who could do anything, right? I'm a restaurateur, I started a podcast, right? How many people started a podcast or did something different, right? Really talented people at Nashville. Real estate's going crazy. Hey, guess what? You got six months where you're getting paid by the government to learn a new craft. I mean, nothing, I'm not saying anything wrong with being on unemployment, whatever it is, but what an opportunity to hit the reset button. I mean, now I've got all this time off. I'm gonna pass my real estate exam.

48:23I'm gonna start building clients and the real estate market is hot as hell. I have the ability to do it before living paycheck to paycheck, waiting tables 40 to 50 hours a week, cooking online or whatever it is. You don't have time to do that. Well, all of a sudden the pandemic gave everybody the time and I think the really talented people in the industry shot their shot somewhere else and they're either crushing it right now or at this point right now they're going, I sure do miss the excitement. I sure do miss randomly getting a celebrity sitting at my table. I do miss that $500 tip you randomly get. I miss going out and having drinks and maybe hooking up with this person or that person. It's a lot more exciting work. I miss the camaraderie of getting the craziness of a Friday night being three deep behind the bar. There's an endorphin rush you get from this. There is a joy and excitement. Restaurants, I think a lot of people like, this budgeting, getting commission on a real estate. Am I gonna sell the house? Am I not gonna sell the house? Oh damn, the deal fell through and I really needed that to happen for me and this sucks. I need to go pick up some shifts.

49:24Hey, I'm gonna go pick up some shifts and guess what? Oh, I really like this. I forgot how much I like this. I think the really talented people either made it or they're on their way back into the industry right now which is amazing for people in this industry because those people are, I think they're trickling back to it almost out of necessity which is giving lifeblood I think to people seeing good top talent come back in which will then, I think we're taking the people that typically would have been, that didn't necessarily have the talent like you're saying the ones that couldn't use the conveyor oven that now we have to prepackage it. Well, those people can go, we're bringing in more talented people so it all filters everybody around and I think we're gonna get back to a new normal of, hey, I just wanna come in and learn. I've had some of the best interviews over the past month and a half people coming in. I just hired a kid the other day that I was like, how the hell are you not working downtown somewhere and like leading that place? I just felt blessed that this guy walked in and I'm like, we're just gonna grab you and put our arms around you because the guy was sharp as hell and we're getting more and more of that and I like to think it's because we're operating really well and we're a desirable place to work and we have great benefits and we treat people with respect.

50:37Some of it's luck of the draw, some of it's, hey, I was driving by, I'm new to town and I saw this restaurant and thought I'd pop in. You're like, great, thank you. You have great reviews on Yelp and we thought it'd be a cool place to work. I see it coming back. I see it changing. Do you think that that's indigenous to Nashville? And in other words, Nashville. No clue. Right. I think Nashville is such a cool place. I know that it continues to grow at an unbelievable rate. You see the cranes downtown every time I'm here. They're all over, they're not even downtown. They're all over the city now. All over the city and I think it's great for Nashville. I think other cities in America aren't experiencing the same explosive growth yet by the same token, the restaurant is a place of community. It's a place of excitement. It's a place of making things happen and because of change occurring so quickly, it's interesting, when I graduated from college and grad school, there were a lot of people in the company. I went to work at Kraft. There was a lot of people in that company that were lifers.

51:40People would go to IBM for a career. They'd go to some manufacturing, GE or whatever and that doesn't occur anymore. As much people are much more transient. But in a sense, the restaurant industry offers excitement and movement and everybody, parents always say, if you work in this industry, people always gotta eat. People always gotta eat. And I don't know. I always gotta eat. I go to groups sometimes. Well, I go to AA meetings, I'll be honest with you. And the other times I hear people sit in groups and they'll say, I'm just kind of lonely. I don't get out. I do my job, I work from home and then it's hard to meet people and I'm like, shit, come work in a restaurant for a month. You'll meet a thousand people. There's all kinds of people doing all kinds of stuff every night to get, you work so close as a team. You have to build relationships with people and it's a great way if you're lonely or you're like, and I heard somebody say the other day that loneliness kills more people than cigarettes.

52:46Wow. Did you know that? Smoking is bad for you and it will certainly end up to negative health effects but being lonely triggers more, it's worse for your heart, like for heart disease than smoking cigarettes. Well, it certainly affects your health, right? Yeah, I guess. It's what the guy said. So, I told you my wife is kind of a renaissance person and among other things she. Tell me about your wife. Your wife's the famous one of the group, huh? She is the famous one of the group. She is called the suburban outlaw among other things and she speaks around the world. Wow. About to help people present themselves and their stories with passion. So she started her life being passionate about acting and was an actress as a child in New York and came from a family of doctors who thought that being an actress was like being an ax murderer, right?

53:49Really, not a good thing. So she went to law school and practiced law and was good at that and then her law, well she was a litigator, right? So it was integrate the acting skills. Anyway, so she, her law firm kind of blew up and instead of going with one of the other law firms, at the time were dreamers. That's the other thing about restaurant people, they're dreamers, right? They're optimists. She had a window to go pursue it. So she went back into acting and in D.C. she was in a show called Cheer Madness at the Kennedy Center for three years. She was on a TV show called Homicide and then we moved to this farm field in upstate New York and really tests a marriage, doesn't it? So she cried for three years. She's fine now and became a cheerleader. So she started writing a column of what kind of husband would subject their New York City wife to a farm field and it went syndicated in the USA Today network and it was in 55 cities and she basically ripped on me about life and so she was called the suburban outlaw and it's tough as you know with a podcast, it's tough for every week to, you know, you have the benefit of bringing in people.

55:00She had to kind of write the column and so she started touring the world, telling her story and empowering others to do it and so she's on the radio in Rochester, New York once a week with the guy there that runs this amazing show and so she's writing a book called Play You the Role of a Lifetime which is about using acting to find your true self, right? And you have your- Wow, interesting. Everybody has their own ways. Anyway, she was interviewing, so she's, today she's in Miami working with the leaders of a college and then we go to London which is where we met 40 years ago going to school and she's speaking there but she was interviewing one of the Peloton people for Dick's Sporting Goods. They brought her in to interview this woman named Tunde and Peloton exploded and then imploded based on- Financially COVID, right? So people were doing- Home workouts.

56:04Other home workouts, they were, you know, the influencers who are these people leading the Peloton classes, the teachers. So there was one woman who, her roots, she was brought up in Texas. She's of Nigerian descent and they asked my wife to interview her. My wife had spoken the African continent, Middle East. Anyways, this woman was talking about her life that she was pursuing a life of being a makeup artist but knew that there was a deeper meaning, a deeper, you know, mission for her. So she became a workout guru, you know, person, her own class. And following thousands of followers. And she was interviewing this woman Tunde and my wife was talking about uncertainty because the world changes constantly, as you know. And her quote that I wrote down, I was so moved by it, is that the beauty of uncertainty is a world of possibilities. And when you think about it, people freak out in uncertainty.

57:08They get fired, their businesses go out of business, et cetera. And she viewed it very differently as that someone told her this quote, she didn't give attribution. But when you think about it, this change in life is just the world of possibilities. You can paint your own canvas of whatever you wanted to be. You in your head had this moment of clarity that said, boy, I love these stories of talking to chefs and I'd love to be able to share it with other people. And you created this show and- Which evolves every day. Right, but you're sharing other people's stories. And you're living one of your possibilities, one of your dreams to do that. And you're basically empowering people to follow their own voice. And you talk very openly about AA, I applaud you for that. There's a lot of people that don't talk openly about the challenges of their life. They put on this, you're talking about everybody wants to be an influencer.

58:09Well, the influencer reality is not a lot of people talk about the challenges of life. They just look, that's the other problem with social media. It's a wonderful thing to connect people in a community and everything else. It's also depressing to think that there's somebody out there seeing this, you know- Rose-colored. Oh, Lord, that everything's perfect in family and everything else. And one of the things about, I applaud my wife's messaging because it's about reality. It's not always wonderful. It's not always beautiful. Will you read that quote again for me? Sure, is that the beauty of uncertainty is a world of possibilities. So we've done some stuff around this, around that kind of that concept. And I do a book club where every month we read a different book and then we do a podcast about the book. And a couple months ago we did a book called The Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter. Have you heard of this book? I have not. You gotta check it out. It's called The Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter and essentially what it says is we as human beings at a certain age know what we like and know what we don't like, right?

59:17And we tend to live in a 72 degree world. I come in here at 72 degrees, get in my car. I move it to 70 degrees. I don't like to be hot and I don't like to be cold. You go out to eat. I know that I like this. I'm gonna try that. I like this. I'm gonna try that. We don't get out of our comfort zone and if this is where we live, our potential is out here. And so I was driving. I had this Jeep and I took the doors off last year and I actually wrote a speech to speak somewhere and I called the, so I wanna do some more public speaking. And I titled it, I bought a Jeep and I took the doors off and I'm driving here on the way here and I took the, and maybe I'll record it and put it out as a podcast, but the idea is this. I'm driving down the road and it's a two lane road and then it moved to four lanes. And I went to move and I couldn't see out the rear view mirror because I had something in the back and then the side view mirrors were on the doors and there were no doors on the car.

01:00:22I could not see behind me. And I realized how important it is to look backwards in order to go forwards. And it hit me really hard in that moment that you have to try new things and you have to get out of your comfort zone and you have to constantly be changing and learning what everything is. That's how you grow. If I can't look back on the things that I've done or accomplished or the mistakes I've made or the successes I've had, how will I know what decisions to make in the future? And if I don't change anything, I'm gonna constantly just stay in the exact same place. But if I branch out and I try things and I make mistakes and I go, oh, that didn't work. Well, next time I do something, I can know what doesn't work, but I've got to constantly get outside of my comfort zone. I've got to try stuff. You've got to try changes. Doesn't mean you got to die on that sword. If it's the wrong thing and you learned from it, then learn from it and move forward. But you don't have to. It's so important to step outside your comfort zone and change and do different things.

01:01:24Listen to a different opinion. Check out something you never thought you would like. Try everything in the world one time. And then from there, moving forward, where can you go? Because now you're looking back on this vast amount of experiences. That's why travel to me is so important. That's why just saying yes. Yeah, let's try it, let's go. It's interesting you say that because I think change is forced on people and they discover a new, in your case, rainbow, a new opportunity that they would have not pursued had there not been that forced change, losing a job, losing a loved one, moving, whatever be the case, my wife would have never discovered being the suburban outlaw had we not moved. Is that her Instagram handle? Well, it's the Pam Sherman. The Pam Sherman. The Pam Sherman. And so, but it's all her various professional and chaotic things. And she thought she'd never get on the stage again and she got asked to play a woman named Irma Bombeck who was an iconic columnist.

01:02:31The iconic female columnist for many years. She was in 900 papers and everything. She was a humorist. And so she's played this in a couple cities and she goes, I'm never gonna do it again. Even though it was fun. Denver, Buffalo, Rochester, she'd sell out houses and this woman, Irma Bombeck, talked about life. And she wrote like 10 books. Everybody thought that the suburbia life was wonderful. And she was in college. They said you'll never be a writer. And she wrote a book called If Life is a Bowl of Cherries, What Am I Doing in the Pits, right? And it was about suburbia. Everybody thinks it's hunky dory. It was the precursor to social media. And I think when you talk about experiencing things, it's interesting. It's also not being paralyzed by the past or fearful of the future, right? My friends who operate in the walls of AA told me this quote that I live by, which is if I'm, and I'm paraphrasing, tell me if I'm wrong, if I'm obsessed with the regrets of the past and fear of the future, I can't live for today.

01:03:44And so a lot of people don't take action like you're talking about. You wouldn't have created this podcast had there not been a light moment for you to figure that out. I wouldn't have created this podcast without my higher power in prayer. We are supported by Robbins Insurance, a local insurance agency providing customized insurance policies, sound guidance, and attentive service. Robbins Insurance is the go-to agency for hospitality professionals in Nashville. Listen, Robbins knows how hard industry professionals work every single day. They also know how devastating accidents can be. Be it a grease fire that damages the kitchen, a severe storm that cuts off power, or a customer slip and fall incident. Both the extensive experience and the savvy to create a policy that protects your business from accidents like those, you can rest easy knowing that the work you've put in will not be for nothing. Visit Robbins website at robbinsins.com to request a consultation or call Matthew Clements directly.

01:04:48His number is 863-409-9372. Protection you can trust. That's Robbins. Do you provide your team with health insurance? If you work for a restaurant right now that doesn't offer health insurance, do you need health insurance? Because Dan Marover at Southern Health Insurance wants to change that. If you're a local restaurant and you just, you really want to offer health insurance, there are so many benefits. Improved employee retention, you have happier team members, which means longer tenures and less training time. Smoother shifts make everyone's lives easier, meaning happier employees are more likely to stick around. When employees take care of their health, they're less likely to take sick days. This means reduction in lost productivity and revenue for your business. Fewer sick days, wouldn't that be great? You have improved morale, a healthy workplace with opportunities for growth is a happy workplace. Encouraging your team's wellbeing will result in higher morale and better work performance.

01:05:48Guys, all of these things, Dan offers health insurance. He offers visual insurance and dental, as well as life insurance. And guys, if you're out there and the marketplace is just too tough to navigate, Dan can answer any question that you may have. Any business, if you're a small business, it doesn't have to be a restaurant, you need to call Southern Health Insurance, 832-816-8602. If you prefer to email, you can email dan at southernhealthins.com. For you to figure that out. I wouldn't have created this podcast without my higher power in prayer. Okay, so meditation. Right. This isn't a religious God thing. What I learned was that I was insane and I tried to control everything in my life. I tried to control everything in this restaurant, that restaurant, and I was the master of my own, everything that in my life, I could control, I can control, and you can't. There's no way in hell. There's things that are out of control.

01:06:49It's the serenity prayer, right? God grant me the serenity to accept things I cannot change, courage to change things, and the wisdom, no difference. When I learned that in the mornings, I could wake up and I could meditate, have a mindful moment, then I just say a prayer and I go, God, whatever I give myself to you, I'm not in control, do with me as thou wilt, essentially. That's kind of the prayer. That's what you have to say. And then you go on your day with peace. And it's not a denominational thing. It has nothing to do with any religion. It's almost like just a personal reflection. And I could be praying, it doesn't have to be the Christian God, whatever my higher power is. That idea, if you just say it, if you go into the day with the mindset that I'm not in control, I'm in control of the things that I can control, but the things I can't control, that's God's will. We were looking at this thing, I'll tell you, that we wanted to purchase.

01:07:50And I said, is it available? Is it something we could do? I looked at my wife and I go, I'm not gonna stress about it. I'm not gonna worry about it. I'm gonna say a prayer. And I'm gonna go, God, if this is meant to be, then make it happen. If it's not meant to be, then make it happen. Either way, I trust that the energy in the world will put me in the right direction as long as I continue to do the next right thing. As long as I can be the best, the things I can do the best, if I do those things, everything else will happen for a reason. Like not getting that restaurant back in the day or all these little things kind of add up and you're like, wow, I had no idea that things work out. They do work out if you trust and you believe in it. And it's so much less stressful. It's very much less stressful. As you deal with change really easily. Yeah, the only thing that is consistent is change, right? I mean, the only thing that we deal with in any industry, especially our industry, the restaurant industry. Everyday life. So with that in mind, let me ask you this. As you look ahead to prognosticate the guy who's had 300 plus episodes of the Nashville Restaurant Epicenter here in the studio, what do you see ahead for the restaurant industry?

01:09:02If you could hook your hat on what happens now, right? Because we're, I call it the purgatory of moratoriums. There was a period of time where landlords couldn't terminate people either by some statute, state or federal. And banks were not terminating and taking over assets because historically if somebody took over a restaurant, a bank, a landlord, there were five guys lined up to go into that restaurant space. And now there's not five guys. And so, and I don't mean the five guys burger place. I mean, like there's five people, five or 10 people. And so what happens now? What happens now is that it's kind of a level set to those things that were always the boogeyman which was your bank or your landlord. Labor you control, right? Or not, you can influence that. So what happens now? What happens to people in the restaurant space? We know that there's way more places to eat than there are gay parts.

01:10:07I think, I'll go off what Chris Keating said at the intro to the RLC, the Restaurant Leadership Conference two years ago, year and a half ago I was at in Dallas. And he said, how great has the pandemic been for us? What an amazing opportunity this whole thing has been. He's like, and he's speaking to chain operators. He's speaking to the CEO of O'Charlie's was sitting at the table with me, right? And like all of these different large VPs and presidents and CEOs of these huge chains. He goes, the dead wood has been burned off the forest, of the forest. He goes, all of the dead wood has been burned off the forest and now it's giving us room to grow. Now we can really thrive. And I just felt like that was the worst statement in the world for independent restaurateurs because it's true. A lot of people that aren't pro, it's the game is stacked against independent restaurant owners.

01:11:13These chains, if you got 300 restaurants, 20 restaurants, 50 restaurants, you've got a CEO, you've got a regional vice president, you've got a director of operations, you've got a CTO, you've got, they brought these marketing directors for IHOP and Applebee's and these people on the stage. So what do you guys think about TikTok? And they go, we don't really know anything about TikTok, but we hired four influencers to come in and they created our TikTok page, made 50 videos for us and now we have 3 million followers. And I'm like, you can do that if you're IHOP, if you're Yum Brands or whatever it is, you can do that. You can't do that if I own Mom and Pop's ice cream shop down the street and you're trying to succeed and you're in the building all the time. I think technology is the real separator right now. I think there's so much amazing technology out there that solves, somebody throughout the pandemic figured out every problem that happens in the restaurants and then they created a technology to fix it. And I think the large companies are adopting to really sophisticated technology where they're able to identify their market and then how they use that for marketing.

01:12:17The individual email blasts, the understanding what your purchasing habits and how they have people that can disseminate that data and then proactively use it to go after people. Independent restaurants don't have that. They don't have the time or the energy to really focus and invest on really good technology. And so that's one of the things I've wanted to do here on the show is talk to people like Pop Menu and Toast and GoTab and bring in all these technologies that I see when I go to the RLC, when I go to FS Tech, when I'm at these big conferences and I'm learning about all this amazing technology and I'm like, people, we need to use these things. These are things that are really, really important that will save you thousands and thousands of dollars but help you know what to do with the data. The second a guest walks in the door, they're just generating data like crazy. How long did it take to get a greet? How long did it take, did you wait? How long did you sit down? How long before your first drink? What did you order?

01:13:17What day did you come in? What time did you come in? All of these things. And if you come in every Tuesday, six o'clock and order a bottle of white wine and a steak with three people that all order kind of a similar thing, these chain restaurants know that. And they know that if they send you a blast on Wednesday that says, hey, we know you come in on Tuesday but on Thursday, the things that you buy are half price. Get you coming in two days. Incremental things like that that they have the data for because of technology now that they're using that independents don't have. And so I think there's a discrepancy in what's happening and the chains are that whole idea of the dead wood is burned off the bottom and now we can really grow. I think is the scariest freaking thing in the world for independent restaurateurs, because they're right. They can do so much more. But I think the general public realizes that supporting local is very important. And I don't know that any of the things I just now said are true, but I wanna do everything I can to build the independence so they understand they are armed with the tools to compete.

01:14:22And I think the experience you get from an independent restaurant is a hundred times better. No question. In my opinion, and I wanna help them. So how do you do that? Oh, you bring people like you on and you say, hey, look. Well, I'm not a technical guy. But you buy equipment, I mean. Well, we've democratized access to the aftermarket. So the whole thing about technology is how do you make it more accessible to more people? I think that the independent restaurateur can be lighter on their feet and move quicker and not go up the line, up the chain to get approval on a menu change. They just do it. There's a lot of operators that are like that. They can raise prices. They can raise prices, they can do whatever they want. I think that access is key. I mean, the beauty of one of the things, quote way back when with Bill Gates was his vision, one of his ideas was to remove the intermediary from access. And when you think about it, you were landlocked, if you will, by whoever was in your marketplace. And now it's opened up to the rest of the country, if not the world.

01:15:25And so that's a beautiful thing. I agree with you. I think that I'm optimistic, but I think it's the enthusiastic entrepreneur. There's always young people or old people. I mean, my wife and I, we sold the house, we raised our kids in, we got an offer from a couple, we rented a place. Growing up in a small town, I didn't wanna rent a place. So I don't have any hobbies, I just have my work. We bought a 100-year-old house. I thought it would be a fun hobby. In retrospect, it's not. We're in the house, it's beautiful, we love it. We told our kids the other day, we spent your inheritance. So you and your sister can figure out what it is. But there was a neighbor who said to me, are you retired? And to me and to my wife, and my wife, she knows who my wife is, so she's not retired. And I said, no, I'm just getting started. And she was so perplexed by it, is that I view the entrepreneurial route, whether it's individually or in partnership with other people, to be the ultimate high of enthusiasm.

01:16:34It's the highest of high, it's the lowest of low, as you know. But I wouldn't trade it for the world, because you control your own destiny. And in the restaurant business, you control your own destiny. And when she said to me, she just assumed, because I was in the 60 range that I was retired, I was like, how sad? And then on the plane yesterday, I'm watching Warren Buffett be interviewed in Tokyo. He's 93 years old, his partner Charlie Munger is 99 years old. And these guys have no desire to do anything but what they're doing. And I think that that's an awesome thing. If you don't love what you do, then you're doing the wrong thing for you. And to your point, reflection, meditation, prayer, whatever it takes you to get there, that's what people have to do. I'm optimistic about the restaurant space. I think that in the end, the lighter on their feet entrepreneur can move quicker and just has to be able to accept change and not just accept the way things are. And I think the future is bright every time I meet somebody through our work, which is expanding access to the aftermarket of restaurant and food service equipment, whether it be new or used, it's enthusiastic for me.

01:17:43I just am frustrated we can't help more people, even though we have thousands of people looking at it all the time, so. Give me your plugs, tell me, because we're past our time here, but we could do this for hours. I know. How do people find you if they wanna learn more about what you do, they need equipment for their restaurant? Or hey, look, I'm thinking of closing my restaurant and I need you to come sell it. Sure, well, they can always email me, it's nsherman at tagxbrands.com, T-A-G-E-X brands, plural, .com. The auction marketplace is restaurantequipment.bid, easy enough. The storefront is restaurantequipment.shop, easy enough. And used is bid, brand new is shop. Correct. And well, some of the stuff on auction is new. Oh. So, yeah, so, and every lot starts at a buck. With no reserves. With no reserves. With no reserves, so. Well, that's fantastic. It's wonderful. And we do ship. Just some good deals to be had. Oh, great deals to be had.

01:18:44And, you know, there's a lot of people that don't realize that there's access to that. You know, a lot of the smaller independent, you know, aftermarket guys in markets have gone away. Do you do much business in Nashville? We do, we do. We have clients here. We are looking to put more of a presence here. Because when we sell from a closed location, it's a one and done, right? So if we close a restaurant in Des Moines, we do an auction there. It's online. If you're not in Des Moines, we'll pick up. But then we have three anchor locations, upstate New York, this thousand acre farm, old army base, Los Angeles and Dallas, from which we ship. And we have good followings in those markets. Okay. Nashville, Florida and Atlanta and Chicago are the next places probably over the next 12 months. And so we'll have a hub here. And the hub is not open to the public necessarily because it's more of a pickup point for surplus. So, but we love Nashville. How can you not love Nashville? It's a great place.

01:19:44And you're here. You're here spreading the gospel of restaurants. Well, it's been a- And for that, I'm grateful. I'm honored to have been here this morning. I appreciate you. Nationally, it's been a tough place to love over the last two weeks. It's unbelievable. Every day. I think there's a lot of love that came to Nashville a couple weeks ago with the horrific school shooting. And then our legislature, you know, getting rid of the Tennessee three and then them being put back in. I saw that. It's been a lot here, but I'm optimistic as well. I'm optimistic for Nashville. I'm optimistic for the industry. I think that, look, all of these conversations, if it changes the way one person thinks, one other person can see a different perspective. One person learns about what you do and goes, I'm about to open a restaurant. I'm really looking for the stuff. I can't find a fryer. And they go to restaurantequipment.bed and they find it tomorrow. Then that helps somebody. An independent restaurant, figure out a way to continue to succeed and rent prices are going up and they're building big buildings everywhere.

01:20:46And I wanna, I think that the restaurant scene is our culinary, it's kind of our cultural background as to what the city, the neighborhoods, seeing people, meeting. It's really amazing. Okay. This has been great, my friend. Thanks for coming in, man. This has been a lot of fun. To be at the epicenter of the, you know, the Nashville Restaurant Radio studio. In the studio, yeah. In the studio, I'm honored. This is it. You gotta sign the door. I would love to. I'll send you off with some of my sponsor stuff. That'd be great. All right, my friend. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Neil. All right.