Neal Sherman

00:00Hi, it's Brandon still host of Nashville restaurant radio, and I want to relay a message from what chefs want They know this has been the craziest past two months any of us have ever experienced And they are excited to work together to get our industry back on its feet They've been working hard this whole time to make improvements and feel like their service model is even more helpful than ever To help you manage your food cost and difficult to protect inventory needs now They'll still be breaking every single case. No minimums on orders 24-7 customer service to help you and deliveries when you need them the most in addition to that They've expanded their to-go selection as well as partnering with local farms who desperately need help right now Finally if you have any questions or any news, please feel free to contact them. They are here to help 502-587-9012 We look forward to getting moving again and continuing to be what chefs want Welcome to Nashville restaurant radio a podcast for and about the people of the Nashville restaurant scene Now, here's your host the CEO of new light hospitality solutions Brandon still Hello Music City and welcome to Nashville restaurant radio My name is Brandon still and I am your host and we've got another great show for you today And we've got another great show for you today Just trying to dig into my bag of tricks and identify people that might be helpful to you people that gain a Different perspective than you or I might see every day So our guest today his name is Neil Sherman and he is the president of a company called tag X brands and I'm so excited for you to learn about what this man does and we're gonna get into that in just a moment but first I want to talk about Springer Mountain Farms chicken and These guys really truly are amazing Did you know their farmers are actually required to live on their farms and tour their houses multiple times every day?

02:08Everyone in the company that handles the birds are trained by the American Humane Association and proper animal care These are things that they do proactively to make sure that they do the right thing and it creates better chicken and You know that because you've had it and it's amazing you've eaten You've had it at your favorite restaurants and you can get it at the stores so do that and We want to thank them for being a sponsor here at Nashville restaurant radio. We also want to thank Kurt's hospitality marketing as They are Ramping up right now to help you get the people back in your place if you're a restaurant if you're a hotel and You are trying to figure out a strategy as to how you get people back into your building Get a hold of Kurt's hospitality marketing check them out at Kurt's hospitality dot-com that's k u r t z hospitality dot-com and Let them know that you called because you heard him here on Nashville restaurant radio So we're gonna start off this episode with Neil Sherman straightaway Neil Sherman Thank you so much for joining us on Nashville restaurant radio. So our very first Visual version of Nashville restaurant radio. Thanks for doing this. Oh I'm honored. I'm honored to be you know, the first in anything by the way Well, you are the president of tag X brands. You're an interesting guy. I met you I believe it was Austin, Texas You were do were you the you were a keynote speaker at there was a seat to it conference and I was fascinated by your company and what you guys do because it's little kind of Not a lot of people talk about this aspect of the business and I met you after you got done speaking And I gave you my card and I said Let's keep in touch and you said the same thing and we caught up on LinkedIn And now I've got a podcast and you so graciously decided to come on so tag X brands

04:13people have described you as The dr. Kevorkian of the restaurant business Which I you know I can say you can take that as a Positive negative have run a look at it and some say that you deal in the underbelly of the restaurant business So let's expand on that I would love to hear let's you let our listeners know exactly what you do Take it away Wow Brandon, I've never been introduced with that opening and it's no wonder that in just a matter of weeks for that matter You've launched so many podcasts and have been heard by so many people the world around not just in Nashville, which is a Food epicenter but in other places so As prepared as I thought I was for the conversation. I didn't know that you would lead it with that, but I'm honored So I appreciate being here. So maybe I I appreciate that I Maybe I should start by Tell you a little bit about how I got to where I am the background so I'm from upstate New York near the Canadian border and Which is more like Tennessee than greater Nashville is like Tennessee or has become as a big metro area People don't think of New York as rural America, but it is I grew up in a region called the Finger Lakes And when you grow up in rural environment, all you want to do is get the heck out of Dodge and move to big city and I did and I went to school and went to work for general foods now craft and marketing That was my first job out of grad school in brand management and I had a great experience we're gonna Maxwell House brand and Wasn't a big fan of corporate America wasn't a big fan of New York And as my wife said the day she graduated law school, I had the car running ready to leave New York

06:16And we agreed being a marrying a New York City girl We agreed to a compromise city of Washington DC not the geographic compromise but the size compromise at least at the time and There wasn't a lot of food companies looking for marketing people in Washington DC because they sell Vapoury things, you know, they don't sell substance of what people in mainstream America eat so I was asked by some colleagues of mine to work on a couple of projects and the Genesis was In the late 80s early 90s supermarkets weren't big into prepared foods now that obviously has changed but These brands wanted positioning in the supermarket in the prepared food section now every supermarket has prepared foods and so the niche that I Helped them with was putting these kiosks into supermarkets Mostly in the supermarket delis and the prepared food section and I'd help brands like Campbell Soup launch a kettle program Craft launch a salad program Maxwell House coffee kiosk frozen yogurt kiosks and it was fun we went into about 2,000 stores around the country in supermarkets. We train the people install it everything And every time we'd show up some buyer at the other side of the desk would say well when you bring in your kiosk get rid of the papaya juicing machine that's failing miserably and I was like Hey, man, I'm not a Sanford and son. I'm not a junk guy I'm a marketing guy and the buyer would say a marketing guy get that crap out of here If you want to bring yours in or else don't bring yours in and we were paid based on placement. So Necessity being the mother of invention. We started pulling the old stuff out clean it up We'd go work the phones before the internet and sell it and bring back the proceeds and the buyers would go You know, no one's ever given me any money for that crap that they take out of here

08:17I got a warehouse here and there and and and and it just kind of snowballed from there in the same way this This Nashville restaurant podcast this snowballed for you, but it snowballed in a way. I didn't envision it was like, okay we don't want your kiosk stuff, but you can help us get rid of our stuff and So one thing led to another we built the business It through the 90s started with supermarkets went to see stores and restaurants banks real estate companies and over time the Demand for that service helped me close restaurants helped me liquidate equipment helped me move equipment Outpaced any demand for kiosks and that survived built it to about 35 warehouses around the country, which was quite cumbersome and we needed space and we needed it in rural America because cities in America charge a lot for warehouse space where you're bringing all this equipment to clean up and redeploy and Sure enough there was an old army base 15 minutes from the hometown in the Finger Lakes I said I would never move back to that was closed. It was a distribution center for the army and We bought it One of those wins they had nobody else lining up to buy it. So it's a thousand acres it's 63 buildings two and a half million square feet and 63 buildings 63 buildings, but I think only two of them have roofs, you know, the army let the thing deteriorate pretty aggressively Okay, and so it was a distribution center for the army. They managed equipment They cleaned it and so we moved in closed all the other warehouses and I found myself back in upstate, New York and so we operate out of here and we operate nationally we also have a facility in Dallas and we Help people with facilities in transition some of which are to put them down so to speak and then we deal with the physical contents the equipment furniture fixtures equipment and either redeploy it to another one of their

10:24Restaurants or sell it in the after and it's that sale in the aftermarket that creates an opportunity for the independent restaurants food service operators caterers food trucks, whatever to buy Efficiently we have an auction platform called restaurant equipment that did and then a storefront called restaurant equipment dot shop Which gives opportunities for the independent to buy at a deeply discounted? Rate so so that's that's our story Yes, we do help people close but we like to think of ourselves as as a green path Because all these years tens of thousands of pieces of equipment that would normally end up in a landfill have ended up in other restaurants food service operators so That's that's it's a unique. I love hearing stories about how businesses cultivate how they begin and kind of what they turn into and It takes a takes a special person to make that happen Where'd you go to school? I went to Ithaca College for a year Where I got a 4.0 and party management. Oh, I got one of those too Yeah, it's I followed a brother who was a great student and my mother never went to college she just assumed everybody made that beans list until she Got my first Report card. She thought it was a registration number that 1.207 that was on there and so she said I better get my act together. So she She said I'd be delivering auto parts for my dad Napa store for the rest of my life if I didn't get my you Know what together so I did and I had the great opportunity to move to Washington I went to school there and I had an internship in the White House Which was a game-changer for my my journey in life when I was interested in politics But certainly I got that out of my system early What is in the White House?

12:21Jimmy Carter, okay It was a non-political internship we were runners we take files, you know, it's before faxing and overnight delivery We get on the subway and deliver a folder somewhere, but it was a great experience After that, I worked on a Capitol Hill and then I worked for a political consultant that I went to school overseas University of London met my wife who's from the US was a long way for a date You just celebrated 35 years 30 35 years very good very impressive Well, I so did a little research Yeah, my My wife is among other things a syndicated columnist called the suburban outlaw and she rips on me in print. So Never a dull moment, but I met her going to school abroad at the University of London. She was studying economics. I was studying beer and darts and both prospering and I Said, you know, my mother's gonna kill me if I fail out of this semester If you get me through this semester, I'll spend the rest of my life with you. So I'm a man of my word There came back went to business school at New York University and then went to went to work at General Foods Wow That's quite the story there. I am I'm just curious, you know when people Have the wherewithal when they're in something and they can recognize when they've got something I think you were in the marketing aspect of it and then you kind of just Transitioned and you pivoted like where does that come from? Where does that?

13:52You know that hustle because I mean it's kind of what it is Right. Yeah, it's it's yeah, it's interesting that I think and I think the DNA of people in the restaurant and food industry have an inner passion for Hospitality for food for community one of the things that makes it so hard with doing what we What we are dealing with right now Is the challenge because we're we're people that connect with other people. I think You know, there's some basic Necessity is one reason that gives the hustle Right. You have to put food on your table. You have to take care of your family those kinds of things when you get employees you have to make sure that they're paid and Then vendors and clients and everybody else customers also in there get take care so I Was gonna say I love the the the story of how you've got here because the topic that I wanted to ask you about It's somewhat taboo when When you have a podcast you're talking to you because there are people right now who are in food insecure situations There are people right now who are losing their businesses who are scared and those are very real emotions and The one thing I don't want to do is come on a podcast and talk about in a vultristic kind of setting Hey, if you're gonna lose your restaurant, this is the guy that'll sell your stuff and I I like the fact that when you tell the story you're telling it out of a There's a compassion to it. Hey, look, you know, we're helping somebody do something We started with helping guys get rid of these machines and we decided that hey they can help them. So throughout all of this Kind of what you do is you help people in times of need. So right now fast forward to today We're in the middle of a pandemic Restaurants are beginning to reopen but Bobby Flay or not Bobby Flay, but Tom Colecio famously said towards the beginning of this

15:56He went on TV and said 75% of independent rest of all restaurants aren't gonna make it The PPP passed and he came back and said 25% of restaurants probably aren't gonna make it And if there's somebody in this country that might have their finger on the pulse that because I think everything is hearsay right now Everybody's saying this saying that to talk to the guy that people call When the restaurants close and they want to salvage things I think that you might have some really interesting insight just to kind of what you who the people you've been talking to and if I have people out there who are listeners right now that are scared that don't know what to do and if There's some kind of help that you can create for them. I'd love to kind of talk about that with you today Sure. No, I appreciate that and that's You know, I am truly passionate about the industry I'm also Don't believe that everybody belongs in the industry, right? There's a lot of people that get into the industry for for maybe not the most Sincere of reasons they think it's easy. They think it's cool They don't realize like you and I know what it's like when the staff doesn't show up And or let's back up to know. Yeah, I mean that's it. It's the challenges. So First of all any one of your listeners Anytime can call me. I give out my mobile number. I give out my email You know, you can post it on your site and give it to you now or we can do it at the end of the show And we don't we're not consultants so we don't take a consulting fee on this we We deal with hundreds if not thousands of restaurants every year and there's a life cycle there's a there's a life cycle like any other product as a life cycle and Before this whole thing began when you and I met in Austin at that conference put on by compete I think with the name of the company. Yes, sir. I Was asked what I thought the oversupply of restaurants in the US was and my answer was

18:0330% now the reason it was 30% was not because there were way more 30 more percent more restaurants than is normal supply and demand It was largely because people that were outside the restaurant space decided to get into the prepared food business So it's it's what I call sector blur. It was the supermarket You know, it used to be when your mom shopped for groceries she went to a supermarket and then you'd go out to dinner as a restaurant and You went to a gas station to get that gas and now those gas stations are called convenience stores And some of them have elaborate food service. So I think a lot of the comments all blurred pre pre pandemic was was caused by that And I think that the challenge now, I don't know what the percentage is of locations closing We know that's that there were more locations than there were places That then there were Time in one's day to go eat, right? You can only eat breakfast once You're not going to go to five places or ten places on your way to work and eventually the least in demand will will Close regardless of the pandemic. So I think right now what you're seeing in the industry. First of all, the industry has come together in ways Your podcast the number of sessions you've done is a is a tribute to your passion for Or byproduct I should say of your passion for the industry Being in a town that you care so much about that is a food mecca might be an extreme word But to me being a guy from the Finger Lakes upstate New York Not the sanding is just an amazing place both for chains as well as independence Your passion to share messages to help other people through this is is just part of the industry that we're in So having said that we'll talk about the practical reality of what's happening right now So when the when everybody was shocked that this hit it was such You know hurricane

20:05tidal wave kind of intensity No one knew what would happen, right? So you talk about the PPP money and everything else at the bridge But do you bring employees back when you don't have any customers? I don't know who knows I think no one wants this to occur anywhere in the world and they just have different paths through it I think the restaurant industry by definition is resilient because you have to be with all the factors that affect you No one in a million years would have thought that this would have happened and when you hear the analysts I was interviewed by a Wall Street analyst the other day and I asked about certain companies and he said well that one will be down 80% Versus year ago. These are numbers that you and I would have never thought would be possible chains public companies, right and So when you hear that you kind of scratch your head and you go We're in different times right now. So initially what happened People fired or furloughed or laid off as many people as they could the big operators even the independents some of the independents were very impressively Resourceful on the takeout and the delivery piece, but that can't make up for everything else and Then it became an issue of negotiating with one's banks and one's Landlords and you know vendors and everything else and then everybody realized we're all in this together used to be the landlords And the banks had a lot of power not so much anymore because everybody's in a same challenging situation so what happened was some Operators said if I'm in a multi unit chain, this is my time to close some locations that are underperforming and So they've used this as a as cover to close So they basically said to their landlord. I'm closing at the global pandemic That's what I got to do if it was two and a half months ago They would have had a different kind of legal and practical fight on their hands

22:09so you're saying that there's because of a global pandemic there's an opportunity Get out of leases. Sure. What's going on? So I put together and I'd be glad to send it to you and you can post it or share it with your With your listeners. It's the six pillars of dealing with facility and equipment chaos, which people keep asking me The number one thing is closed things that don't work Right makes sense. You've got you've got a little bit of a window here The first movers seem to be doing pretty good with it as I've observed Then there's people that just throw in the towel you have chains based in Nashville Logan's Roadhouse, they shut everything down They don't talk about opening up like no American blue ribbon holdings. They had shut a bunch of locations Name it everybody was affected, you know, there's great chains You have iconic brands there. Those are iconic brands Cracker Barrel great great companies all challenged and doing the best they can and so Some companies have used it as an opportunity to close other companies View it as an opportunity. Hey, I need cash. So what can I monetize? What can I sell?

23:22So it's just like people look around their Garage or basement or whatever list stuff on some online platform eBay or whatever and sell it and they monetize So we're helping people monetize the surplus that's dormant right now. You've been in you know, you've been in a thousand back rooms There's a thousand everyone has something that that nobody's using so we help them monetize them. So that's a really good Little piece of advice right there. I mean just if you're a restaurant that's cash strapped Every single restaurant I've ever been in has that back area right the back area That just has old equipment and stuff that I mean, how do you get rid of it? How do you sell it? Is it too much work to even deal with and that's a unique idea I mean if you need cash to to move some of that stuff, especially if it's working so so, you know somebody can list it locally on one of the Platforms or we can help them list it on one of ours whichever be the case whichever Somebody wants to handle and then if they're a multi-unit operator or they have multiple locations the redeployment of assets between locations Ones that close or ones that you know don't need certain pieces is another opportunity So rather than buying a brand new mixer for ten thousand dollars, you know You have one that's okay in another location, but it's not used anymore that can be moved so those are kind of the three pillars of what we recommend in this environment and then The bigger piece to it is when you need something make sure you exhaust every possible Avenue of purchase that is What we call value sourcing so we have an online platform as I mentioned restaurant equipment that bid and restaurant equipment that shop now 65% of the inventory is all new surplus Okay, it's not used. It's from dealers and distributors and manufacturers Scratch and then you know discontinued items that are deeply discounted So any operator should look efficiently in the aftermarket even if it's a new aftermarket for surplus

25:27I think there's you know, I think there's a couple different sides here that you're talking about one is There's an opportunity to cut bait and move on to the next thing I think some people are legitimately struggling that aren't just gonna make it though There is a I think there's a there is an excess of restaurants if you look in Nashville There's so many restaurants and I think there's probably too many restaurants and then there's people out there Who are very savvy and we're looking to expand who are really killing it and I think there's gonna be some deals I think there's gonna be some deals out there and so finding product When you do have that building is going out and somebody's willing to sell it cheap to get new equipment That's another big part of it too is you can probably find some deals right now Very good deals. No question about it and We're coming into now that I think effective yesterday the all 50 states are in some level of reentry into the world of restaurants But some of the parameters that have been put around people are a recipe for failure immediately You know, there's a lot of restaurant operators or food service operators out there that are waiting You know, they want to get back in business They want to see what's going on Brandon and they're waiting till we're up and running and then we'll give it a shot right, that's one option absolutely or you can use this as a chance to pivot to your point and find other avenues of revenue generation of your concept or your your offering to the marketplace and I think that There will be some locations that will not reopen The order of magnitude Who knows? I don't know what they are your point about Tom Kalikia who's a great chef Maybe not the the most skilled and experienced of economic forecasters I hope he is wrong And even though I help people through transition, you know for every piece of equipment

27:32We sell from a closed location. It goes to somebody else who's operating a location or opening money. So we're we're you know, we're Sustainable we're in the circular economy if you will because this equipment is going to be here long after you and I are gone from this Earth because it's made of stainless and it's it's not disposable. It's reusable and that's what we help to happen I didn't know we were green until We refurbished and remanufactured 50,000 coffee brewers for Starbucks and someone said did you understand the economic or the green implication of this? And I was like, no and they showed us and it was pretty it was pretty staggering. So I Think my gut tells me that in some of the metropolitan areas You might see as long as these constraints are there and if there's not another recurrence of this tragic Pandemic thing or we reflaring up of it You know, you might see 20 to 30 percent of locations not open as what they were It may be something else. There have been other parts of the food service industry that have done very well You know the prepackaged product Prepared and packaged right in grocery stores retail has been on fire Yeah And a lot of the super a lot of the restaurants locally have have added capacity for commissary type Production to feed that piece. So that's good Delivery was on its last legs as to who was going to pay for it. It seems to have resurrected here the whole meal Kits right for the time being the whole meal kits that were on on life support have resurrected for just a little bit here So who knows who knows what it's going to be I think it's going to be different it's just gonna be different I think there will be time when Certain locations will close and not reopen or come back as another form But in places you and I were talking about Austin, which is the city we met in we have a

29:33Client who I was talking to their CFO and the rules in Austin where you could only use 25% of the tables Phase one and you had to have one to two seats between you and the next person at the bar So if you and I went out for a drink We can't sit next to each other by lawn state of Texas at a bar, so I go why go to a bar I don't know. I think that Hey, look, I think everybody's ready to get the hell out of their house Yeah, no question. If I get one seat away from you I'm talking to you over a video if I could cheers you at least from a seat away I'm and I think people will figure that out. So I want to pivot a little bit in this conversation To I think people understand what you do how you do it but I think another aspect of this whole thing that we've brought about is Confusion you've got a lot of people out there who've been Displaced there's been a lot of people this word pivot has been everywhere And people have had to do that we've had to readjust but one thing that I've found to be true throughout this entire thing is leadership and And how leaders lead and how people in their personal lives and just kind of the mindset and as somebody who's CEO of a large company I'm curious about your mindset. What does leadership look like to you during a pandemic?

31:00That's a great question so my definition of leadership transcends any Situation whether it be pandemic or otherwise whether it be adversity or Success. There's a lot of dimensions to it, but my first boss Craft general foods who eventually became the CEO Had that quote one thing up on his wall which was a quote about the definition of leadership, which is The ability to communicate a vision and gain commitment to it It's not about dictatorship, it's not this this wasn't the quote that sentence was the quote it's not about dictatorship authority bureaucracy hierarchy and you know, it's to clarify Where you're headed and get people enthusiastic about it and that means leadership can occur at any level You have leaders who are the hosts or hostesses at a restaurant leaders in the back of the house Leaders on the dish machine, which is how I began my food service career and and leaders in the chef world I mean it you know, it's all where you're headed and getting people enthusiastic about her and it's Winston Churchill, I think said leadership is going from Failure to failure with enthusiasm or something like that. It was a paraphrase. What are you doing right now?

32:22How are you keeping your how many how many employees do you have? So we have associates around the country probably four or five hundred that are not full-time employees Okay, we probably have 20 or 25 located here but because so much of our work is done in the field we over our high water mark was 150 and We now have hundreds of people that we count as part of our team that are in different parts of the country So but not full-time employees per se How has how has it been for you personally? personally during quarantine anything you Pivoted to anything you've accomplished any any good movies you've watched that you that you want to share so I believe that So much of what we all deal with in life is about attitude, right? I hundred percent I think that people that face adversity especially early in their life have different views of the world than those people who have not faced adversity for most of their life and then get through it and so I lost my mother at a young age And I think me dealing with that and then my wife and I lost three close friends in our 20s and 30s And dealing with that so quickly who left young children and everything else I think you get a perspective right about the world And no matter how difficult this is and we know people that have lost family members to this You just have to keep a positive attitude and put one foot in front of the other eye and adversity Or what is perceived as more broader adversity?

34:04Actually hunker down and get more focused Uh, because I think you need to you just need to be we've not laid anybody off. We're proud of that We've not missed a payroll in 33 years of Of being in business, um That means that sometimes my partner and I don't take salary oftentimes in the history of the company, but we're proud of that, you know People in the last couple weeks a guy bought a house That I bought a car, you know, I take a lot of pride in that kind of stuff So I think in this current environment You have to Not hunker down and cocoon you have to be out there reaching out to people connecting with people And listening asking questions doing what you do and share it with others Only not everybody has the the skills and the talent to do it the way you do it Well, thank you very much. I've said I had a podcast A few weeks ago and I said if if you're listening to this and there's three things that I would challenge you to do And it was stay healthy Mentally first and then physically do what you can meditate find a way to do that. Stay hungry Stay busy find something don't just wait for the check to come in identify something that's going to keep you busy Read books better yourself in whatever way you possibly can And then help I don't know what that looks like for you But if it's you had a friend that isn't happy or sad call them connect with friends you haven't talked to in a long time You know if you have money Go spend money at a restaurant buy buy food for people that are that need it Do something to help so those those were my three things. I told people as I said Stay healthy stay hungry and help and those things Have helped me personally get through a What's been certainly a weird?

35:57weird time very weird I personally have kind of enjoyed uh, i've spent a lot of time five and six year old boys and uh, i'm a Workaholic, so i'm constantly working and i'm running around and i'm It's been all this time in my car It's just been nice to be at home and really hug my kids and we've watched movies and we've jumped on the trampoline And we've you know, we've played games I've been able to be a kid i've been like three years worth of yard for projects that have been completed. It's been fantastic So all great advice great wisdom Thank you. Um So, yeah, man, I I thank you so much for coming on. I mean this is this has been educational for me And hopefully my listeners out there um Are able to to kind of gain a little bit of perspective from what you've had what you've shared So tell them if you are a restaurant there that you've got a stuff to sell or b You're scared. You don't know what to do next and You need some help. You just want to talk to somebody How would we go about that how would they get in touch with you what are the Tell me the things that if somebody's dealing with right now are good reason to call you so in any of those by the way, i'm open to any of those and um my perspective is There was a great Speaker named zig zigler. Oh, have you ever heard of zig zig? I've seen him speak live Yeah, so have I uh, may he rest in peace. Yeah, I I In the early stages of launching my business as you know, because you're in business you have to get internal motivation and Be influenced by people outside your inner circle. Hopefully you get positive karma from people around you But if you don't and I would read books and but he had a profound influence on me for a lot of reasons One is I you know, I think his philosophy on life and his salesmanship were great He said selfishly You can get everything out of life

38:00You want if you just help enough other people get what they want? And it's kind of a Machiavellian thought Coming from a guy that presented himself so purely but he was very direct about it and it's true If you help other people get what they want in the end it works out and so all these years that i've met people like you Brandon, you know at a at a place in austin and other people in different situations you know I I You know, I like to be of service to other people and so whether we do work with people or not We talk to them and try to help them through that's why I say we never figured out how to make money as a consultant Because we always just gave it away and we have enough experience opening closing remodeling locations And it is a niche business that you don't know unless you you know about us um, so anybody can email me anytime our website is Www dot tag x brands.com t a g ex And the word brands.com my email is n sherman n s h e r m a n at tag x brands.com And I can give you my contact information that you could post on your site on the podcast if you would like And people people can reach out to me anytime but uh But I applaud you because you live in a place that's really special music city being so special food wise Love it there um When I took my son to look at colleges I expressed just a little too much interest in your town Which sent him the other way because it was dad advising And I almost went to to grad school and law school in your great town there Uh, but I fell in love and went to new york and good thing I got the new york thing out of my system because my wife and I left there after a couple years So if I'd gone to school in nashville probably would have never left, but uh, I doubt you would have It's an amazing city special place And um, it has everything

40:01I mean you just have everything there and food and music and sports and good people you even have traffic Which we don't have in the finger lakes, but you do have traffic that brings you back to your southern cow roots. It does You know, it's funny because you can go You know the professional Football we've got the titans. We've got the nashville predators. You've got the the ryman auditorium bridgestone arena, we get the world-class axe and then 15 minutes away from downtown. I didn't interview two days ago with a woman named silvia ganyard and she Runs a farm called green door gourmet. You can be on a farm I live 20 minutes from downtown and five minutes away from the harpeth river where my wife and I took a canoe On mother's day with our kids and just spent the most serene Peaceful day floating down a river in the most beautiful area in the world And i'm like i'm 15 minutes from downtown nashville. It's awesome floating down a river Yeah, it's you live in a special place and it's the epicenter for many things Not the least of which are food and music two things that i'm passionate about and uh, I appreciate you Uh giving me the opportunity to chat here and I I look forward to doing it again Yeah, I'd love to have you back on once we get kind of past this thing and See how busy you are and see what's going to love to check in with you for sure Thank you for taking the time today. That'll be great. Thank you sir Thank you All right, neil sherman On nashville restaurant radio. Thank you neil for coming on and spending that time with us and just a fascinating part of the industry that a guy from Upstate new york to come on our show and talk to us and offer that kind of help So if you're out there and you need help or you have questions or anything along those lines?

41:46In the actual body of the podcast i'm going to put his information so you can um, Give him a call I want to go ahead and say one more. Thank you to springer mountain farms chicken what chefs want and Kurt's hospitality marketing These are companies that believe in you the independent restaurants that want to help support my show, which I want to support you so Please patronize these companies. They are good people and Please subscribe to this podcast if you're still listening. We would love to have you as a regular subscriber and as always we hope that you are Safe and sound Love you guys Bye